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C^FSRIGHT DEPOSm 



MINOR WARS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

A HISTORY 

OF 

THE FRENCH WAR,^ 

Ending in tlie Conquest of Canada, 



WITH 



A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY ATTEMPTS 

AT COLONIZATION AND STRUGGLES FOR THE 

POSSESSION OF THE CONTINENT. 



BY. 

ROSSITER JOHNSON. 



ILLUSTRATED, - , -ortK.unr ^-w« 

" ^'CT 2 18S2 






NEW YORK : 
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 

Publishers. 



yr:^'^ 



Copyright, 1882, ^ 
By DODD, mead & COMPANY. 



3 lo^ 



« vj 






f^ PREFACE. 



The history of the struggle between the Gaul 
and the Briton for possession of North America, 
though in form a straggling story, stretching over 
two centuries, offers one of the most interesting 
studies of national character and destiny. To treat 
it exhaustively in a volume like this was impossible, 
if not undesirable ; but it is hoped that enough has 
been told to give the reader a clear idea of the 
character and sequence of all the significant events, 
and to suggest something of the philosophy of the 
long contest. A knowledge of this is absolutely 
necessary to any intelligent study of the subsequent 
history of our country. 

The part played by the red man should not be 
overlooked. Bloody and terrible it was to the 
vanquished soldier, thrice bloody and hideous to 
the settler and his little family ; but though it pro- 
longed and embittered the struggle, it had no real 
effect upon the result. In the earlier wars on this 
continent, the tomahawk and scalping-knife were 



iv PREFA CE. 

enlisted mainly in the service of the French against 
the British ; but the Briton conquered the French- 
man nevertheless. In later wars, the same savage 
weapons in savage hands were wielded for the 
English against the Americans ; but the American 
conquered the Englishman. There is no more im- 
portant lesson to teach the youth who must be cur 
future soldiers and commanders than this, that in 
the warfare of nations the exercise of cruelty has 
never secured the ultimate victory. The power that 
only tortures and murders cannot become even a 
balance of power when two races are in conflict for 
precedence, or two opposite ideas for survival. 
Civilization must fight out its own battles. 

An account of Pontiac's conspiracy, the final 
grand effort of the Indian to drive off the encroach- 
ing Saxon from American soil, would have formed 
an interesting sequel to the narrative of the French 
war ; but the limits of space forbade. I am indebted 
to my sister, Mrs. Joseph O'Connor, for valuable 
assistance in the preparation of this volume. 

R. J. 

New York, September 13, 1882. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGB 

Early Voyages i 

Claims of European Nations to American Territory, 2. — Con- 
tests of the English and French, 2. — The Indians in War, 
3. — The Cabots, 5. — Cortereal, 6. — Spanish Explorers, 6. — 
Decree of Alexander VI., 6. — Verrazzane, 6. — Cartier, 8. — 
Stadacone, 12. — Hochelaga, 12. — Donnacona, 12. 

CHAPTER II. 

Destruction of French Settlements 16 

Roberval and Cartier, 16. — Civil Wars in France, 18. — De la 
Roche, 18. — Pontgrave and Champlain, 20. — Poutrincourt 
and Lescarbot, 23. — The Micmacs, 23. — The Jesuits, 24. — 
Madame de Guercheville, 25. — Colony of St. Saviour, 29. — 
Destruction of St. Saviour and Port Royal by Argall, 31. 

CHAPTER III. 

Quebec Founded, and Taken by the English 35 

Founding of Quebec, 36. — Friendship with the Algonquins, 
36. — Expeditions against the Iroquois, 37. — Story of De 
Vignan, 41. — Introduction of Priests, 44. — Hostile Attempt 
of the Iroquois, 46. — Grant of Acadia to Sir William Alex- 
ander, 48. — Religious Troubles in France, 49. — Capture of 
Quebec by Kirk, 50. — The La Tours in Acadia, 51. — Treaty 
of Germain-en-Laye, 52. — Death of Champlain, 53. 

CHAPTER IV. 
The French in the West 54 

The Iroquois, 54. — Fate of the Hurons, 55. — Fight at the Long 
Sault, 56. — Forts on the Richelieu, 57. — Montreal, 58. — The 
Jesuits, 59. — Discoveries in the Mississippi Valley, 62. — La 
Salle, 63. — La Chine, 63. — Iberville on the Gulf of Mexico, 
64. 

CHAPTER V. 
Acadia 66 

Destruction of English Trading-Stations, 66. — Feud between 
Charnisay and La Tour, 67. — Capture of Acadia by the Eng- 
lish, 78. — Restoration to France by the Treaty of Breda, 79. 
— St. Casiine at Penobscot, 79. — Attack by Andros, 79. — 
Hostilities by Indians, 79. — War between England and 
France, 79. 

CHAPTER VI. 
King William's War 80 

Iroquois Attack on Montreal, 80. — Plan of the French, 81. — 
Capture of English Posts at Hudson Bay, 82. — Massacres at 
Dover, Saco, and Pemaquid, 82. — Three Expeditions Planned 
by Frontenac, 83. — The Schenectady Massacre, 84. — Salmon 
Falls Destroyed, 86. — Attack on Casco, 86. — Expedition 
Planned by the English, 87. — Sir William Phips, 87. — Cap- 



vi CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

ture of Port Royal, 91. — Schuyler at La Prairie, 95. — Phips 
at Quebec, 97. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Close of King William's War 105 

Attacks on Wells and York, 106. — Fort Built at Pemaquid, 
107, — Attempt to take it, 109. — Plan to Attack Quebec, log. 
— Proposed Exchange of Prisoners, no. — Oyster River As- 
sailed, III. — Schuyler at La Prairie, 113. — Invasion of the 
Mohawk Country, 114. — Treachery of Chubb at Pemaquid, 
116. — Destruction of the Fort, iig. — Church and Hathorn 
on the St. John, 120. — Haverhill, 121. — French Plan for the 
Capture of Boston, 123. — Iberville in Newfoundland and at 
Hudson Bay, 124. — Frontenac among the Iroquois, 126. — 
The Peace of Ryswick, 128. — Deaths of Frontenac and Ville- 
bon, 129. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Queen Anne's War 130 

The Spanish Succession, 130. — The Pretender, 131. — Attacks 
on Wells, Saco, Casco, Deerfield, and Lancaster, 132, — 
Church in Acadia, 134. — Destruction of English Towns in 
Newfoundland, 135. — Sieges of Port Royal, 135. — Attack on 
Haverhill, 135. — Final Capture of Port Royal by the English, 
136. — Insurrection of the Acadians, 137. — Attempted Con- 
quest of Canada by Admiral Walker, 139. — Attack of the 
Foxes on Detroit, 142. — Treaty of Utrecht, 143. — Louis- 
bourg, 144. — Father Rasles, 144. — Expeditions of Harmon, 
Westbrooke, Winslow, and Lovewell, 147. — Indian Treaty, 
149. — Forts at Niagara, Oswego, and Crown Point, 149. 

CHAPTER IX. 
King George's War 150 

Sovereigns of England, 150. — The Austrian Succession, 150. — 
Maria Theresa, 151. — Frederick the Great, 151. — The War, 
152. — Hostilities between France and England, 153. — At- 
tacks on Canso and Annapolis, 153. — La Loutre, 154. — 
Proposed Expedition to Louisbourg, 156. — Shirley, Pepperell, 
and Vaughan, 156. — Commodore Warren, 157. — Whitefield, 
157- — Siege and Fall of Louisbourg, 162. — Rejoicings in 
Boston, 163. — Project to Conquer Canada, 164. — Fighting in 
Acadia, 165. — Fate of the French Fleet, 166. — Success of 
Ramezay at Grand Pre, 168. — Capture of Jonquiere's Fleet, 
i6g. — The French and Indians on the Western Frontier, 169. 
— Inactivity of the English, 169. — Possible Reasons for it, 
169. — The Treaty of Aix-Ia-Chapelle, 170. 

CHAPTER X. 
Acadia after the War 171 

Failure of Negotiations for the Adjustment of Boundaries, 171. 
— Encroachments of the French, 172. — Settlement of Hali- 
fax, 173. — Refusal of the Acadians to Take the Oath, 174. — 
Attacks by Indians, 175. — Burning of Beaubassin, 176. — Fort 
Lawrence, 177. — Fort Beau Sejour, 177.— Colonel How's 
Fate, 178. — Expedition to Acadia, 179. — Fall of the French 
Forts, 181. — Escape of La Loutre, 1S2. — Exile of the Aca- 
dians, 183. 



CONTENTS. . vii 

CHAPTER XI. PAGE 

The Ohio Valley 189 

French Posts in the West, 189. — Ogdensburg, 190. — Sir 
William Johnson, 191. — Conference with the Iroquois, 193. 
— Expedition of Bienville, 194. — The Walking Purchase, 
196. — The Ohio Company, 197, — Christopher Gist, 197. — 
Indian Conference at Logstown, 198. — French Attack on 
Picqua, 199. — Expedition from Canada, 200. — Mission of 
George Washington, 201. — Fort Du Quesne, 204. — Fight 
with Jumonville, 204. — Fort Necessity, 205. — Fight at Great 
Meadows, 205. — Fort Cumberland, 206. — Council at Albany, 
206. 

/ CHAPTER XII. 

^ )R addock's Defeat 209 

.'Ian of the English Ministry for Operations in America, 209. — 
Capture of Ships by Boscawen, 211. — Braddock's March, 
214. — His Defeat, 219. — His Deatli, 220. — Effect of the De- 
feat, 221. — Washington, 221. — Alliances with the Indians, 
222. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Battle of Lake George, 224 

Expeditions under Shirley and Johnson, 224. — Shirley at Os- 
wego, 226. — Movements of Dieskau, 226. — Building of Fort 
Edward, 227. — Advance of Dieskau, 228, — First Engagement, 
230. — ^Fightat theCamp, 232. — Fight with Macginnis, 233. — 
Reward of Johnson, 234. — Erection of Fort William Henry, 
234. — Fortification of Ticonderoga, 234. — Hostilities on the 
Ocean, 235. — Plans for the Ensuing Year, 236. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
French Successes 237 

Declaration of War, 237. — Lord Loudoun Commander-in-chief, 
237. — Inaction of Abercrombie, 239. — Adventure of Brad- 
street, 239. — Capture of Fort Bull, 240. — Montcalm, 241. — 
Capture of Oswego, 242. — Movements of Webb, 245. — 
Loudoun's Troops Quartered on the Cities, 245. — Devasta- 
tion of the Shenandoah Valley, 246. — Dinwiddle's Plan of 
Defence, 248. — Washington's Suggestions, 249. — Destruction 
of Kittanning, 250. — The Iroquois, 251. 

CHAPTER XV. 

LOUISBOURG AND FORT WILLLA.M HeNRY 252 

An Indian Raid, 252. — Encounter between Stark's Men and 
the French, 253. — Vaudreuil's Attempt at Fort William 
Henry, 254. — Loudoun's Council, 254. — Affairs in the South, 
255. — Plan to Take Louisbourg, 255. — Admiral Holbourne, 
256. — Withdrawal from Louisbourg, 256. — Opinion in Eng- 
land, 257. — In America, 258. — Siege of Fort William Henry, 
263. — Webb's Cowardice, 264. — Monroe's Surrender, 265. — 
Massacre by Montcalm's Indians, 266. — Descent on the 
German Flats, 268. — Situation at the Close of the Year, 
270. — The Duke of Newcastle, 270. — William Pitt, 271. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Louisbourg and Ticonderoga 273 

Plan of the Campaign, 273.- — Siege of Louisbourg, 274. — 



viii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Surrender, 277. — Effect of the Victory, 278. — Destruction 
of French Settlements, 278. — Expedition against Ticonderoga, 
279. — Skirmish in the Woods, 281. — Death of Lord Howe, 
281.— The Attack, 285.— The Flight, 287.— Terror of the 
General, 287. — Conduct of Bradstreet, 288. 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Frontenac and Du Quesne 290 

Skirmishes near Lake Champlain, 290. — Rogers and Putnam, 
291. — Bradstreet's Expedition, 292. — Capture of Fort Fronte- 
nac, 293. — General Forbes in Pennsylvania, 295. — Grant's 
Defeat, 297. — Capture of Fort Du Quesne, 300. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Niagara and Lake Champlain 302 

Plan of Operations for the Year, 302. — Weakness of the French, 
303, — Siege and Capture of Fort Niagara, 304. — Death of 
Prideaux, 305. — Western Forts Occupied by the English, 
308. — Attack at Oswego, 309. — Inaction of General Gage, 
310. — Amherst at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 310. — Op- 
erations on the Lake, 311. — Punishment of the St. Francis 
Indians, 315. — Adventures of Rogers, 316. 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Siege of Quebec 319 

Situation of the City, 319. — Sailing of the English Fleet, 323. 
— Officers and Forces of the English, 323. — Advance of 
Durell, 324. — Mistake of the French, 324. — First Blow, 324. 
— Passage up the River, 325. — Skirmish with Peasants, 325. 
— Attempts to Fire the Fleet, 326. — Incidents of the Siege, 
327. — Occupation of the East Bank of the Montmorenci 
by the English, 331. — The Scholars' Battle, 332. — Firing of 
the City, 332, — Passage of Ships by the Town, 333. — Battle 
of Montmorenci, 336. 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Capture of Quebec 341 

Attacks of the French on Scouting Parties, 341. — Reprisals by 
the English, 341. — Attempt by Murray, 343. — Illness of 
Wolfe, 343. — Townshend's Plan, 344. — Wolfe's Opinion of 
it, 345. — Montcalm's Prediction, 345. — Transfer of the 
Army, 346. — The Anse du Foulon, or Wolfe's Cove,. 348. 
— Landing and Ascent of the Troops, 349. — Diversion at 
Beauport, 350. — Position on the Plains of Abraham, 351. 
— Arrival of Montcalm, 352. — Arrangement and Numbers of 
the Troops, 352. — The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, 
356. — Rout of the French, 357. — Death of Wolfe, 357. — 
Death of Montcalm, 359. 

CHAPTER XXL 

The Surrender of Canada 363 

Siege of Quebec by De Levis, 363. — Battle at Sillery Wood, 
365. — Amherst on the St. Lawrence, 368. — Surrender of Isle 
Royale, 369. — Surrender of Montreal and the Whole of 
Canada, 370. — The Treaty of Paris, 371. — Predictions of 
the Revolt of the Colonies, 372. 



A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH WAR. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY VOYAGES. 



Claims of European Nations to American Territory — Contests of the 
English and French — The Indians in War — The Cabots — Corte- 
real — Spanish Explorers — Decree of Alexander VI. — Verrazzano — 
Cartier — Stadacone — Ilochelaga — Donnacona. 

For more than a hundred years after the discov- 
ery of the continent of America, at the close of 
the fifteenth century, no permanent settlement was 
made by Europeans in its northern portion. The 
New World was looked upon mainly as a land of 
adventure and discovery, a land holding the pos- 
sibility of unimagined wonders and undreamed-of 
riches, waiting only for the hand brave enough and 
adventurous enough to seize them and carry them 
back in triumph to the Old World. The sailor and 
the merchant looked to it for the realization of their 
brightest visions, and crowned heads confidently 
expected its wealth to replenish their exhausted 
treasuries ; but not till the latter part of the six- 
teenth century was it sought as a refuge dnd a home 



2 EARLY VOYAGES. [1492. 

by the persecuted adherents of the new religion, and 
as a missionary field by the reawakened zeal of the 
older Christian Church. 

The claims of European nations to American ter- 
ritory were vast and vague. When an adventurer 
touched a strip of sandy shore, he at once planted 
upon it the flag of his nation, and took possession 
of the whole continent in the name of his sovereign. 
These indefinite claims — in some instances strength- 
ened by colonization or confirmed by Indian grants 
— were afterward used as a pretext whenever indi- 
vidual interests or religious hatred or European 
wars excited any of the feeble American colonies 
to make themselves and their neighbors still feebler 
by intercolonial hostilities. 

The most successful explorers were Italians ; but 
they were all in the service of countries other than 
their own — in that of Spain, England, or France. 
The Spaniards made no attempt to establish colo- 
nies, or seriously to assert their claims, north of 
Florida ; and there they came somewhat into col- 
lision with the English and French. To those two 
nations was left the great struggle for the possession 
of the northern coast and the interior. 

The worst feature of their contests was the parti- 
cipation of the red men, with their savage and indis- 
criminate modes of warfare. That most of their 



I500.] EARLY VOYAGES. 3 

peculiar atrocities were committed in the interest of 
France was not wholly due to greater depravity on 
the part of the French ; for in later wars the Eng- 
lish showed themselves quite willing to employ the 
same barbarous and irresponsible allies, knowing 
that their outrages would be perpetrated, not upon 
the hereditary foes of England, but upon English- 
men themselves. Many of the leaders on both sides 
would have been glad to have their savage friends 
conform to the usages of civilized warfare ; but 
when the Indian's zeal was once awakened and his 
thirst for blood aroused, it was impossible to hold 
him to a code which he did not recognize, and which 
to him seemed weak and cowardly. His own laws 
of war knew no mercy for the conquered. When 
he failed, he expected none ; and when he was vic- 
torious, he deemed himself defrauded if he were 
forced to let prisoners go untortured and unharmed. 
Hence the horrible massacres that followed some of 
the French victories. 

That the Indians fought more frequently and 
zealously on the side of the French, was due to the 
superior tact and skill of the French in dealing with 
them, and to the fact that they earlier saw the ad- 
vantage of gaining and holding the friendship of the 
natives. The British at first adopted the policy of 
avoiding them as much as possible, of driving them 



4 EARLY VOYAGES. [1500. 

back into the interior ; they regarded them as in- 
capable of civilization, and scarcely looked upon 
them as subjects for the influences of Christianity. 
The French, on the other hand, tried from the first 
to Christianize, if not to civilize them. They drew 
them when they could into missionary villages near 
their own settlements, and sought to bind them to 
themselves by the bonds of a common religion. The 
wild life of the savages attracted many adventurous 
spirits from the French colonies, who lived among 
them as coureurs de bois, or wood-rangers, adopting 
their mode of life and gaining an influence which 
told largely for France in times of war. 

Almost the only Indians who stood by the English 
were the Iroquois, or Five Nations, whose home 
was in New York. Even their friendship often 
wavered ; and it might be said that their adhesion 
to the English was not because they loved them 
more, but because they loved the French less. 
Their enmity may have been caused by the fact 
that the French, in the early days of their settlement 
in the country, joined against the Iroquois with their 
enemies, the Algonquins of the St. Lawrence. 

When the English woke to the importance of 
taking advantage of the distrust of the Iroquois 
toward the French, they were never successful in 
rousing them to the zeal in their cause which the 



I500.] EARLY VOYAGES. 5 

Indians of Maine and New Brunswick displayed in 
the cause of the French. Yet, though the English 
colonies availed themselves, as far as they could, of 
the help of the savages, it must be admitted that the 
record of the French in America is stained with 
many more atrocities not justifiable by any rules of 
civilized warfare — descents on unarmed laborers in 
the fields, and midnight attacks on peaceful settle- 
ments, with all the horrors of indiscriminate massa- 
cre, which were incited and often led by French- 
men, and even in some cases by the ministers of 
religion, and in periods of nominal peace. 

The contests between the English and the French 
for the possession of American territory were not 
ended until the close of the Seven Years' War in 
1763. It is a curious fact that while the colonies 
which England had settled with her own sons, and 
which helped her to conquer New France, had re- 
volted and become an independent nation in twenty 
years, those then wrested from France, French in 
their origin and devotedly loyal to the French 
Crown, have contentedly remained under British 
rule for more than a century. 

The English claims were based on the discoveries 
of John and Sebastian Cabot, Venetians living in 
England, who, in i497-'8, examined the coast from 
Labrador to Virginia. The Portuguese, in 1500, 



6 EARLY VOYAGES. [1512. 

sent out Caspar Cortereal, who explored the coast 
northward, and stole some of the natives, whom he 
took home for slaves. The Portuguese merchants 
therefore called the place Terra de Labrador, " land 
of laborers." 

The best known explorers sent out by Spain, after 
Columbus, are Juan Ponce de Leon, who discovered 
and named Florida in 1512 ; Hernan Cortes, the 
conqueror of Mexico ; Pamphilo de Narvaez, who 
discovered the land of the Appalaches ; and Her- 
nando De Soto, who found the Mississippi in 1 541, 
and was buried in its waters the following year. 
Under the name of Florida, Spain claimed a vast 
country extending from the Atlantic to the Rocky 
Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Arctic Ocean. This claim, based on the right of dis- 
covery, was further confirmed to Spain by a bull of 
Pope Alexander VI., making the Spaniards exclu- 
sive masters of all America. The decree of the 
Pope, however, was not powerful enough to prevent 
Francis I. of France from attempting to gain some 
share in the glory and profits of discovery. 

The first explorer sent out by the French Govern- 
ment was John Verrazzano, an Italian ; though 
French sailors, in common with those of other na- 
tions, had resorted to the coasts of Newfoundland 
for years to fish for cod, some as early, at least, as 



1523.] EARLY VOYAGES. 7 

1504. Newfoundland and Labrador, or parts of 
them, were indefinitely called Baccalaos, a word 
said to mean codfish in the dialect of the Basque 
provinces. The sailors had a tradition that two 
islands north of Newfoundland were haunted by 
demons, whose clamor filled the air with confused 
sounds which were heard by ships venturing near 
the unholy coast. They were called the Isles of 
Demons, and were represented on maps of the time 
with their infernal inhabitants dancing about in 
wings, horns, and tails. 

Verrazzano set out in 1523 with four ships, but 
encountered a storm, and finally crossed the ocean 
with only one, the DaupJiine, carrying fifty men and 
provisions for eight months.* He first saw the con- 
tinent near where Wilmington, North Carolina, now 
stands ; but, as the shores were thickly lined with 
savages, he did not dare to land. The Indians 
made signs urging the sailors to come on shore, and 
one, more daring than the rest, took some presents 



* The authenticity of this story, which rests upon a letter attributed 
to Verrazzano and pubHshed by Ramusio in 1556, has recently been 
called in question and, if not disproved, at least shown to be doubt- 
ful. I have thought best, however, to let the reader see it, with this 
warning as to its character. It was first disputed by T. Buckingham 
Smith, in 1864. J. Carson Brevoort defends the story, in his "Ver- 
razzano the Navigator" (New York, 1874), and Henry C. Murphy re- 
jects it, in his "Voyage of Verrazzano" (New York, 1875). 



8 EARLY VOYAGES. [1523. 

and swam for the beach ; but, losing his courage 
when near the land, he threw all he had to them and 
started to return. A breaker, however, tossed him 
back upon the beach, and the Indians, running to 
his aid, took him ashore, and built a great fire. 
The terrified sailor, and his companions who were 
looking on from the boat, had no doubt that they 
were going to make a meal of him, or offer him in 
sacrifice to the sun. But he soon found that the fire 
was to warm him and dry his clothes. The Indians 
gathered about him, admired his white skin, caressed 
him, and took him down to the beach when he 
wanted to return to the boat, dismissing him with 
most affectionate embraces. 

The Daiiphine proceeded northward along the 
coast, carrying away an Indian child stolen from its 
mother in Virginia, explored New York Bay and 
Long Island Sound, and stopped in the harbor of 
Newport, where the white men were most cordially 
treated by the Indians. Having gone as far north 
as Newfoundland, Verrazzano returned to France, 
and wrote for the King the first known description 
of the Atlantic coast of the United States. 

The most illustrious navigator sent out by France 
in the sixteenth century was Jacques Cartier, of the 
seaport town of St, Malo, in the northwestern part 
of the kingdom. He was sent at the suggestion of 



1 534-] EARLY VOYAGES. 9 

Philip Chabot, Seigneur de Brion, Admiral of 
France, a favorite of the King, who induced his 
master to make another attempt to gain a footing in 
the country which had given so much wealth to the 
Spaniards. Cartier sailed on the 20th of April, 
1534, with two ships of sixty tons, and one hundred 
and twenty-two men. 

The voyage was so prosperous that Cartier 
reached Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland on the 
loth of May. Finding the land still covered with 
snow and ice, he turned to the southeast, and 
landed at a port which he named St. Catharine. 
Then turning north again, he named some small 
islands Bird Islands. He was surprised, he says, to 
see a white bear as large as a cow on one of these 
islands, to which it had swum from the mainland, a 
distance of fourteen leagues. As soon as it saw the 
boats, it took to the water, and Cartier killed and 
took it the next day near Newfoundland. He sailed 
nearly around the island, which he described as the 
most wretched country to be found, with ** nothing 
but frightful rocks and barren lands covered with 
scanty moss — but inhabited, notwithstanding, by 
men well-made, who wore their hair tied on the top 
of the head, like a bundle of hay, with birds* 
feathers irregularly inserted, which had a most 
curious effect." 



lO 



EARLY VOYAGES. [1534- 



Crossing to the mainland, he entered a deep bay, 
which he named the Bay of Chaleurs, on account of 
the heat. There is a tradition that it had before 
been entered by Spaniards, who, finding no signs, 
of mineral wealth there, exclaimed, Acd nada ! 
* ' Nothing there ! ' ' — an expression which the Indians 
caught up and repeated to the French, who sup- 
posed it to be the name of the country, whence the 
word Canada. It is more probable, however, that 
Canada is the Iroquois word Kannata, a village. 

Having explored a large part of the bay, Cartier 
landed at Gaspe and took possession in the name 
of the King of France, raising a cross thirty feet 
high, on which was hung a shield with the arms of 
the country and the words, Vive le Roy ! " Long 
live the King!" After discovering Anticosti, he 
returned to France, taking with him two Indians, 
who picked up a little French and served as inter- 
preters the following year. 

The reports of Cartier's voyage convinced the 
court of Francis I. that it was desirable to found a 
colony, both for the purpose of establishing a profit- 
able trade and for saving the heathen, not only 
from their heathenism, but from the heresies that 
might be imported among them by the Protestant 
peoples of Europe. The Vice-Admiral Charles de 
Mouy obtained a fuller commission for Cartier, with 



1535.] EARLY VOYAGES. II 

three well-equipped vessels ; and all the sailors as- 
sembled at the Cathedral on Whitsunday, by Car- 
tier's directions, and received the bishop's bene- 
diction. 

They embarked on the 19th of May, in fine 
weather, but a furious storm arose the next day, 
and the scattered ships were tossed about for more 
than a month, but at last met in the gulf or Great 
Bay on the 26th of July. On the loth of August, 
Cartier gave to a small bay in the mainland, north of 
Anticosti, the name of St. Lawrence, in honor of 
the saint whose day it was. This name was after- 
ward extended to the whole gulf, and to the river 
also, which had before been known as the River of 
Canada, or River of the Great Bay, and by Cartier 
called the River of Hochelaga. Hochelaga was the 
chief Indian town on its banks, and stood on the 
site of Montreal. 

They ascended the river, entered the Saguenay 
on September ist, examined the mouth of that river, 
and then pursued their voyage up the great stream. 
The large island just below Quebec, now known as 
the Isle of Orleans, was so covered with grape-vines 
that Cartier named it Bacchus Island. He stopped 
next in the St. Charles, just north of Quebec, near 
its mouth. On the site of the present city of 
Quebec — between Fabrique Street and the Coteau 



12 



EARLY VOYAGES. Ii535. 



de Sainte Genevieve, it is thought — was an Indian 
town called Stadacone. Here he received a visit 
from a chief, named Donnacona, who talked with 
Cartier by the aid of the two Indians who had been 
to France. 

Cartier had heard of the much larger town farther 
up the river, called Hochelaga, and resolved to push 
on to it. The Indians of Stadacone, who were of a 
different nation from those of Hochelaga, tried to 
dissuade him, representing that the way was long 
and beset with difficulties. When this failed to 
change his purpose, they pretended to have received 
a message from one of their gods threatening the 
French with storm and tempest, if they should 
ascend the river. Cartier sent back word to the 
god that he was a fool, and set out with one of the 
ships, the Great Hermine, and two long-boats. The 
anxiety of Donnacona and his people was probably 
caused by the fear that a rival nation might take 
from them the advantages of trade and alliance with 
this strange new people, from whose unknown 
abilities and resources they hoped not only gain, 
but an easy victory over their enemies. 

The voyagers were obliged to leave their ships at 
Lake St. Peter, having missed the channel and run 
aground, and went on with only the two boats, 
reaching Hochelaga the 2d of October. The town 



1535.] EARLY VOYAGES. 13 

was round, and enclosed by three rows of trees. 
The middle row stood upright, and the other two 
were inclined and crossed above it. Then the sides 
of the pyramidal wall were covered with logs well 
fastened together. There was but one gate ; and 
along the inside of the enclosing wall or palisade 
was a gallery reached by ladders, and stored with 
stones for the defence of the fortress. Inside of the 
town were fifty cabins, each over fifty paces l(5hg 
and fourteen or fifteen paces wide. These cabins 
were tunnel-shaped, made of saplings bent together, 
and covered with bark. Each was occupied by a 
large number of families. 

The Hochelagans received the French with cour- 
tesy, feasted them, and gave them gifts. They 
looked with great admiration at the dress of the 
strangers, their armor and weapons, their trumpets, 
their fair skins and bearded faces. Cartier has left 
a description of a peculiar kind of service held 
among them. One day the warriors formed a circle, 
on the outside of which were the women and chil- 
dren, and in the centre the Frenchmen, all the sav- 
ages gazing at them " as if they were going to play 
a mystery." Then the chief advanced, pointed at 
his decrepit limbs, and made signs that the French 
should heal him. His example was followed by all 
the sick, the halt, and the lame, who came them- 



14 EAKLY VOYAGES. [1535. 

selves, or were brought to the supposed healer. 
Cartier was perplexed, but seized the opportunity 
to make a religious impression on their minds. He 
recited the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, 
made the sign of the cross on the sick, and gave 
presents of knives to the men, beads to the women, 
and little tin lambs to the children. Then he 
prayed and recited aloud the passion of the Saviour, 
and the ceremony was concluded by a mighty blast 
from the trumpets, which set the savages nearly 
beside themselves with wonder and delight. 

The same day Cartier climbed the mountain, and 
gave it the name which is now borne by the city and 
the island, Mount Royal — Montreal. Looking from 
its summit over the vast extent of wooded country, 
with the great river rolling by and the dark waters 
of the Ottawa descending to meet it from the 
unknown wilderness, he thought no better site for 
a city could be found, and hoped, no doubt, himself 
to lay there the foundations of a French empire in 
the West. 

On taking leave of the friendly savages, the 
French returned to the St. Charles, called by them 
the St. Croix, where they had left the greater part 
of the men. They found that barracks had been 
built during their absence and surrounded by a kind 
of intrenchment, sufficient to protect them from a 



1536.] EARLY VOYAGES, 15 

surprise. The Indians, however, continued friend- 
ly. But the sailors were attacked by scurvy, and 
twenty-five of them died. Cartier himself fell sick, 
and all of them might have perished, had they not 
learned by accident of the Indian remedy for the 
disease — a decoction made from the leaves and bark 
of a tree called by the Indians Anneda^ which is 
thought to have been the white pine. A week after 
they began using it, the sick were all restored. 

In the spring Cartier set sail for France. Having 
got Donnacona and some of his principal men into 
his hands, he carried them with him ; a piece of 
treachery which he excused by saying that the 
savages were making hostile preparations and at- 
tempting to get hold of Cartier himself. The 
Indians he took away were all baptized in France, 
and died there. Donnacona lived four or five ye 
after his capture. 



CHAPTER II. 

DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 

Roberval and Cartier — Civil Wars in France — De la Roche — Pont- 
grave and Champlain — De Monts — Poutrincourt and Lescarbot — 
The Micmacs — The Jesuits — Madame de Guercheville — Colony of 
St. Saviour — Destruction of St. Saviour and Port Royal. 

Either Cartier's report of his second voyage dis- 
appointed the hopes which had awaited the result of 
his enterprise, or the war in France drove the sub- 
ject from the minds of those who had power to push 
on the undertaking ; for nothing further was done 
till 1540, when a gentleman of Picardy, Francis de 
ia Roque, Seigneur de Roberval, received a patent, 
dc' faring him Lord of Norumbega, the King's Vice- 
roy and Lieutenant-General in Canada, Hochelaga, 
Sci^uenay, Newfoundland, Belleisle, Carpon, La- 
brador, Great Bay, and Baccalaos. This flourishing 
and pompous beginning had a most contemptible 
outcome. 

The next year Roberval went to the St. Lawrence, 
sending Cartier, who was to be his pilot, in advance. 
The Indians at Stadacone crowded about Cartier's 
ship, asking for Donnacona and their other country- 



I54I.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 17 

men who had been taken away, and Cartier told them 
Donnacona was dead, but the others were living 
in France in great state, and were not willing to 
return to their own country. The Indians received 
the story with distrust ; and when Cartier, after 
building a fort at the mouth of Cape Rouge River 
above Stadacone, left most of his men there, and 
went up the river to Hochelaga, they killed two ot 
those who were left. On Cartier's return, the men 
at the fort, which was called Charlesbourg Royal, 
discouraged both at the hostility of the Indians and 
the failure of Roberval to arrive from France, 
whither he had gone for supplies, clamored to go 
home, and Cartier yielded. Near Newfoundland 
they met Roberval, who ordered them back ; but 
Cartier stole away with his ship in the night. In 
1543 he went out again, and brought back the rem- 
nant of Roberv^al's colony, much reduced by disease 
and executions for mutiny. 

Roberval seems to have been stern and vindic- 
tive, uncompromising and impolitic in his manage- 
ment, and ill adapted to be the head of a colony 
where he had to rule a lawless band of adventurers 
and convicts within, and keep the peace with sus- 
picious and crafty savages without. Under his rule, 
men were hanged for theft and insubordination, and 
the whipping-post was in frequent requisition. In 



iS FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1598. 

one case several men were banished to an island and 
kept there for some time in fetters. 

Cartier, after the inglorious ending of his career 
as a navigator, which had begun so brilliantly, set- 
tled down to a quiet life at his country-house in the 
suburbs of St. Malo, which was still standing a few 
years ago. 

More than half a century passed before the project 
of settling colonies in North America was revived. 
France had been torn by dissensions between the 
Catholics and Protestants ; eight civil wars were 
waged during the reigns of Charles IX, and Henry 
III., a period of twenty-eight years. But the rule 
of the moderate and tolerant Henry IV. restored 
tranquillity to the kingdom ; and the spirit of ad- 
venture and discovery revived. During the inter- 
val, the fisheries and the fur-trade had been carried 
on in the vicinity of Newfoundland by Frenchmen 
and sailors of other nations, and had grown to large 
proportions. 

In 1598 the Marquis de la Roche received a grant 
from the King to colonize New France, with sub- 
stantially the same title which had been conferred 
on Roberval. By the terms of this grant he was 
made an almost absolute monarch, having sole 
power to raise troops, make war, build towns, give 
laws, impose punishments, and grant pardons ; but 



1598.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 19 

he was required to keep in view the establishment of 
the Roman Catholic faith. The gains and profits 
of the first voyage were to be divided into thirds, 
one for him, one to be distributed among his com- 
panions, and one applied to the expenses of war, 
fortification, and other common charges. 

For the purpose of establishing this magnifi- 
cent transatlantic feudal viceroyalty, the Marquis 
gathered a company from the prisons, and under the 
guidance of a skilful pilot named Chedotel, landed 
at Sable Island, a desolate spot south of Cape Bre- 
ton. Here De la Roche put ashore forty of his 
convicts, and went on to explore the coasts of 
Acadia, intending to call for the men on his way 
back ; but contrary winds prevented a landing, and 
the wretched men were left alone on the sandy and 
barren island. 

When they found themselves deserted, and the 
last hope of the vessel's return had died away, they 
built cabins of the wrecks of Spanish vessels. A 
few sheep and cattle were roaming about the island, 
sprung from some that had been on board the 
wrecked ships, or left there in a forgotten enterprise 
by the Baron de Lery ; and these, with the fish they 
caught, furnished a living. When their clothes were 
gone, they dressed in sealskin. So they lived for 
seven years. Various misfortunes had assailed De 



20 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1603. 

la Roche when he returned to France, and he had 
been unable to do anything toward their release ; 
but at last the King heard of them, and sent 
Chedotel to bring them back. The forty men were 
reduced to tw^elve, whom Chedotel took to France 
and presented before the King in the same dress in 
which he found them, " covered with sealskin, their 
hair and beards of a length that made them resem- 
ble the pretended river-gods, and so disfigured as to 
inspire horror. The King gave them fifty crowns 
apiece, and sent them home released from all proc- 
ess of law." 

After the death of De la Roche, patents were 
granted to others, who used them mainly to enrich 
themselves by trade. But in 1603, the Sieur de 
Pontgrave, a merchant of St. Malo, having received 
permission from the King to continue discoveries 
in the region of the St. Lawrence and make settle- 
ments there, associated with himself Samuel de 
Champlain. 

This great man was destined to become the real 
founder of New France. He was born at Brouage, 
in Saintonge, a department of Western France, in 
1567. After serving in the army of Henry IV., he 
had gone to the West Indies as a captain in the 
Spanish service, and kept a journal, which he called 
** A Brief Discourse of the Most Remarkable Things 



i6o3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 21 

Seen by Samuel Champlain of Brouage, in the West 
Indies." He drew his own illustrations for it — 
maps of the coasts, pictures of strange animals, and 
Indians burned for rejecting the gospel or whip- 
ped for not going to mass. This manuscript is still 
preserved at Dieppe, and has been published in an 
English translation. The accounts which he after- 
ward gave of his adventures in the French colonies, 
under the title, " Voyages in New France," are an 
important source of information regarding the early 
history of those colonies. 

Pontgrave and Champlain ascended the river to 
find Cartier's town of Hochelaga ; but it was gone, 
probably destroyed in some Indian war. The 
rapids prevented them from going farther, and they 
returned to France, to find that a new commission 
had been given to Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, 
of Saintonge. This gentleman was a Protestant, 
but agreed to establish the Roman Catholic religion 
among the Indians, while his own sect was to enjoy 
full freedom of worship. He went out with four 
ships, taking in his own some Catholic priests and 
some Huguenot ministers, who edified the crew with 
their disputes, even " falling to with their fists on 
questions of faith." A Franciscan friar who wrote 
a history of Canada says the crew buried in one 
grave a priest and a minister, who happened to die 



22 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1604. 

at about the same time, to see if they would lie 
peaceably together. 

De Monts went to Acadia, and landed his men 
on the southern shore of what is now Nova Scotia, 
and then sent out Champlain to explore the coast 
and find a place for a settlement. He entered and 
named the harbor of Port Royal, where Annapolis 
now stands, a place which holds an important posi- 
tion in the early history of America. Crossing the 
Baye Fran^oise, now the Bay of Fundy, they en- 
tered the St. John's, naming it in honor of the saint 
whose feast fell on that day, and selected for the site 
of their colony an island in St. Croix River, called 
by them Isle St. Croix, and now known as Doucett's 
Island. The St. Croix they called River of the 
Etchemins, from the tribe of Indians living there. 

During the winter Champlain explored the coast 
as far as Cape Malabar, taking possession of the 
country in the name of the King of France. Find- 
ing that the island selected had been chosen un- 
wisely, De Monts moved his colony in the spring to 
Port Royal. A settlement had already been begun 
there by his lieutenant, De Poutrincourt, who had 
taken a fancy to the place, wished to bring his 
family and live there, and had therefore obtained a 
grant of Port Royal and the vicinity from De 
Monts. 



i6o5 ] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 23 

The next year Poutrincourt brought from France 
with him Mark Lescarbot, an advocate from Paris, 
who proved a great acquisition to the colony, being 
quick and fertile in invention of schemes, and able 
to inspire the men with enthusiasm for carrying 
them out. He induced them to plant fields and 
construct roads, showed them how to make fire- 
bricks, and build a furnace for clarifying the gum of 
the fir and making pitch ; and under his direction 
they built a watermill to take the place of the hand- 
mills they had been using. The priests had all 
died, and Lescarbot undertook to read and expound 
the Scriptures on Sundays. The supplies were 
abundant, and the winter passed with plenty of 
good cheer and fun, led by Lescarbot and Cham- 
plain. Lescarbot afterward wrote a history of New 
France. 

To their feasts the Micmacs, or Souriquois 
Indians of Acadia, were made welcome. These 
Indians were firm and serviceable allies of the 
French during all the time of their occupation of 
the country ; and their chief, an old man named 
Mambertou, became a great favorite with the set- 
tlers. Lescarbot wrote a poem commemorating a 
victory he gained over the tribe of the Armou- 
chiquois. 

De Monts, who had lost the privilege given him 



24 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1607. 

of carrying on the fur-trade to the exclusion of all 
others, succeeded in getting it restored, on condition 
that he plant a settlement on the St. Lawrence. 
He therefore removed his men and supplies, and 
Champlain went with him, leaving Port Royal to 
Poutrincourt, who had obtained a confirmation of 
his grant of the place from the King. At the same 
time the King notified him that something must 
now be done for the conversion of the Indians ; and 
the King's confessor, Father Cotton, being directed 
to choose some Jesuit fathers to go over and begin 
the work, selected two, Pierre Biard and Enemond 
Masse. 

But Poutrincourt was unwilling to take the fathers 
over. Some historians have supposed that both he 
and Lescarbot were secretly Protestants ; but it is 
more probable that they merely shared the prejudice 
against the Jesuits as extremists in the Church and 
secret friends of Spain, which was not uncommon 
among good Catholics in France at the time. 
Poutrincourt gave Father Cotton to understand 
that he should soon embark at Bordeaux. Thither 
Father Biard repaired, and waited a whole year, but 
there were no signs of departure. The Jesuits com- 
plained to the King, and the King sharply rebuked 
Poutrincourt, who promised to go at once, and 
made his preparations ; but at the last moment he 



i6io.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 25 

begged Father Cotton to let the missionaries wait 
until another year, that the colony might be in a 
better condition to receive them. Father Cotton 
let the matter go ; and Poutrincourt sailed. When 
he arrived at Port Royal, wishing to show the 
' King that America could be Christianized without 
the Jesuits, he began to gather in the Indians for 
religious instruction ; he had with him a priest 
named La Fleche. Old Mambertou was the first 
convert, and others followed so rapidly that in a 
few weeks Poutrincourt was ready to send over to 
the King a list of twenty-five Indians who had been 
baptized into the Church. Mambertou received in 
baptism the name of the King, members of his 
household were called after the royal family, and 
the lesser Indians after other titled personages at 
the French Court. 

The list was taken over by Poutrincourt*s son, 
Biencourt. But Henry IV. had fallen by the knife 
of an assassin, and Biencourt gave it to the Queen 
regent, supposing the matter of sending the Jesuits 
would not be pressed any farther. But they had 
succeeded in interesting in their favor the Marchion- 
ess de Guercheville, a woman of great energy, enthu- 
siasm, and devotion to the Church, who assumed the 
role of patroness of the mission to the Indians, and 
collected money for building and furnishing a chapeL 



2 6 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1611. 

Two Huguenots who were associated with Bien- 
court refused to let the Jesuits go ; but Madame 
de Guercheville raised money at court and bought 
them out. Then she purchased from De Monts all 
of his claim under the grant of Henry IV., which 
had now been revoked, intending to get it renew- 
ed ; and she did afterward receive a royal patent for 
all of North America from the St. Lawrence to 
Florida, excepting Port Royal, which had been 
given to Poutrincourt. She made a contract with 
Biencourt by which the missionaries were to be sup- 
ported from the proceeds of the fisheries and the 
fur-trade. 

The missionaries at length reached Port Royal, 
in June, 161 1 ; but there was never a very good 
understanding between them and Poutrincourt, who 
resented the Jesuits' interference with what he con- 
sidered his own province. Lescarbot reports him 
as saying to Biard, ** I with my sword, Father, 
have hopes of Paradise, and you v/ith your brev- 
iary. Show me my way to heaven, and I will show 
you yours on earth." 

The missionaries were anxious to learn the Indian 
language ; but those of the French who could have 
helped them would not. Old Mambertou, however, 
came to them for instruction in Christian doctrine, 
and helped them to some knowledge of his Ian- 



i6ii.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 27 

guage, though he did not live long after their ar- 
rival. Biard, to show how the Indians had been 
taught by Father La Fieche, reported that when he 
was teaching him the Lord's Prayer, Mambertou 
objected to the petition for daily bread, saying, *' If 
I only ask for bread, I shall get no fish nor moose- 
meat." 

The story of Mambertou *s death is interesting. 
Father Masse took him to his own house when he 
fell ill ; but care and remedies were of no avail. 
Mambertou saw that he must die, called for the last 
sacraments, and exacted a promise from Biencourt 
that he should be buried with his own people. 
Father Biard said it could not be allowed ; for to 
bury the chief in heathen ground would be a 
stumbling-block to the Indians. Biencourt urged 
his promise, and said the father had only to bless 
the spot where the chief should be laid. The mis- 
sionary replied that this could not be done unless 
all the pagan bodies were first removed ; and that, 
of course, was out of the question. But Mamber- 
tou was obstinate, and Biard declared he Vv^ould have 
nothing to do with the funeral. The terrors of the 
world to come and the firmness of the Jesuit at last 
prevailed ; Mambertou gave way, died with the con- 
solations of the Church, and received Christian 
burial. 



28 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1612. 

The Jesuits made some farther attempts to bring 
the savages into the fold of the Church. Biard 
went to visit the Kinibequi, or Kennebecs, and 
other Indians in what is now the State of Maine, 
in company with Biencourt ; and Father Masse 
made an expedition with Louis, the son of Mamber- 
tou, from which he came back worn with sickness 
and hardship. But the commandant and his son 
treated their Jesuits grudgingly ; the colony was 
growing feeble, depending on supplies from France 
and help from the Indians, and neglecting the care 
of the soil. 

On the other hand, the Jesuits, in concert with 
Madame de Guercheville, made it uncomfortable for 
Poutrincourt in France. His funds were running 
low, and the colony was a constant drain upon 
them. He was forced to admit Madame de Guerche- 
ville as a partner, in order to get aid for Port 
Royal. She sent over another Jesuit, a lay-brother, 
Gilbert Du Thet. But quarrels ensued at the col- 
ony ; Du Thet was sent back ; and Madame de 
Guercheville, who by this time had received her 
grant of the greater part of North America, deter- 
mined to begin a new settlement. 

She therefore sent out a vessel in the spring of 
161 3, under the command of the Sieur de la 
Saussaye, who, stopping at Port Royal, took on 



i6i3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 29 

board the two Jesuits, and sailing on began a set- 
tlement on Mount Desert Island, which was named 
St. Saviour. 

But the colony was destined to be short lived. 
Samuel Argall, a piratical adventurer of Virginia, 
set out for a fishing excursion off the coast of 
Maine. On his way, he heard of the new settle- 
ment from the Indians, and resolved to drive away 
the French, on the strength of patents from the 
English King giving to the London and Plymouth 
Company the control of North America up to lati- 
tude 45° N. After a short engagement, in which 
Brother Du Thet valiantly fired off a cannon which 
he forgot to aim, and soon after fell mortally 
wounded. La Saussaye surrendered. 

Argall took possession, cut down the cross the 
Jesuits had raised, and, searching the baggage of La 
Saussaye, found and stole his commission. The 
next day he asked Saussaye to show his commission, 
saying that he should respect the authority of the 
French King, although the country belonged to the 
English. La Saussaye, of course, could not find 
the commission ; whereupon Argall denounced him 
as a pirate, and gave up the French ship and the 
houses of St. Saviour to be plundered by his men. 

After this he treated the colonists more mildly. 
He offered them a small bark to take them home to 



30 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1613. 

France ; but it would not hold them all. Fifteen 
embarked in it, including the commandant and 
Father Enemond Masse, who went to look after 
their spiritual interests. At first they had no pilot ; 
but in a day or two, as they were coasting along, 
they found their pilot, who had fled from the Eng- 
lish to the woods, and took him in. Near Port de 
la Heve, on the southern shore of Acadia, they met 
two French ships, which took them safely to St. 
Malo. 

The rest of the French prisoners were induced by 
Argall to go with him to Virginia. He promised 
that they should be treated well, allowed the free 
exercise of their religion, and be sent to France in a 
year if they cared to go. But when they reached 
Jamestown, where Sir Thomas Dale was acting as 
Governor, Dale declared that they should all be 
hanged as pirates. Argall tried to protect them, 
pleading the terms of the surrender and the promises 
by which he had induced them to come to Virginia ; 
but Dale would not relent ; he said they had been 
trespassing on English territory without authority, 
and they deserved the fate of pirates. Seeing no 
other way of saving them, Argall was obliged to 
produce the stolen commission of La Saussaye and 
confess his baseness. Sir Thomas was compelled 
to give up at sight of the commission from the 



i6i3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 31 

French King, but he declared that the French 
should be driven out of Acadia. 

This he at once made preparations to do, though 
that part of the continent was included in the grant 
made by the English King to the Plymouth Company, 
while Virginia was under the control of the London 
Company ; so that the Virginians had no claim 
whatever to interfere with the French in Acadia. 
He fitted out three ships, and gave the command to 
Argall. Biard and Quentin, the Jesuits who had 
gone with Argyll to Virginia, went with them, as 
did several others of the Frenchmen. They sailed 
first to St. Saviour, and destroyed all they had left 
at their previous visit. Next they went to the 
island of St. Croix, where De Monts had had his 
colony, and razed the deserted buildings. Then 
they crossed the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal, 
guided, it is supposed, by Father Biard, who saw 
an opportunity to be revenged on Poutrincourt's 
colony. 

Biencourt, who was in command, was absent 
among the Indians. But supplies had lately been 
sent from France, and these the invaders had the 
satisfaction of seizing or destroying by fire. " And 
please God," says Biard, in his story of it, " that 
the sins committed there may have been also con- 
sumed." They cut off the arms of France and the 



32 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1613. 

names of the founders of the colony, which had 
been cut in a large stone standing in the fort, and 
left the fort itself in ruins. Sailing up the river, 
they saw the fields and mills where the men were at 
work. Biard, it is said, tried to induce some of 
them to leave Biencourt and serve under Argall. 
But they rejected the treacherous suggestion with 
scorn, and one of them threatened to split the holy 
father's head open with a hatchet if he dared to 
make another of the kind. 

Biencourt tried to make an agreement with Argall 
to divide the trade of the country ; but Argall re- 
fused to consider him in any light but that of an in- 
truder on the territory of King James. Biencourt 
also asked the surrender of Biard, to v/hose treach- 
ery he attributed all the misfortunes of Port Royal ; 
and the Jesuit, who was looked on with almost as 
much distrust by the English, was in a dangerous 
position. His own account says he was saved by 
his display of humanity and his forgiving spirit. 
** He put himself on his knees before the captain at 
two different times and on two occasions, to pray 
T for pity toward the French at Port Royal, to per- 
suade him to leave them some provisions, their 
sloop, and some other means of passing the winter. 
And see what contrasting petitions were made to 
the captain ; for at the same time when Father Biard 



i6i3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. -^l) 

was thus interceding for the French, a Frenchman 
was crying out from afar, with abuse and accusation, 
that the Father ought to be butchered. Now Ar- 
gall, who has a noble heart, seeing the Jesuit's sin- 
cere affection, and the beastly inhumanity of that 
Frenchman, refused to listen to the accusations." 

After the destruction of Port Royal, the French 
colonists were scattered. Some went to the settle- 
ments on the St. Lawrence ; but most of them 
spent a miserable winter, roaming in the woods and 
getting what help they could from the savages. 
Poutrincourt gave up all hope of the colony ; and 
in 1615 he was killed in a civil conflict in his own 
country. His son, with some few companions, 
among whom was Charles de la Tour, spent his life 
in Acadia and made efforts to rebuild Port Royal. 

Argall sailed again for Virginia, taking back with 
him the Frenchmen of St. Saviour. But he encoun- 
tered a storm at the very beginning of the voyage, 
and one of the three ships was lost ; Argall's own 
reached Jamestown in safety, but the one having 
the Jesuits on board was driven northward and then 
to the Azores, where it put into port at Fayal. It 
was a fortunate storm for Father Biard ; the ship 
carried a formal accusation from the Port Royal 
men to Sir Thomas Dale, against the Jesuit ; and 
the Governor, as Biard says, " was waiting to cut 



34 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1614. 

off his voyages by showing him the end of the world 
from the top of the gallows." 

The ship, which was the one taken from La 
Saussaye in Argail's first expedition, and was now 
commanded by Turnell, the lieutenant of Argall, 
was in some danger from the Portuguese at Fayal, 
where it came to port ; the officers were at the 
mercy of the Jesuits, who had only to accuse them 
as pirates. But Biard and Quentin promised the 
master of the ship that they would lie hidden while 
in port, a promise which Biard claims great credit 
for keeping. 

When the ship arrived in England, Turnell was 
put into prison on suspicion of being a pirate. He 
had no papers to explain his position, and appear- 
ances were against him ; he was in possession of a 
French ship ; and he was only released on the testi- 
mony of the Jesuits. After spending some time in 
England, Fathers Biard and Quentin were claimed 
by the French ambassador and sent home. La 
Saussaye and his companions were at length shipped 
from Virginia to England, and in the end reached 
their own country. Madame de Guercheville sent 
La Saussaye to demand reparation in London ; but 
she seems to have succeeded only in getting her ship 
restored. This was the end of the first serious 
attempt at French settlement in Canada. 



CHAPTER III. 

QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 

Founding of Quebec — Friendship with the Algonquins — Expeditrons 
against the Iroquois — Story of De Vignan — Introduction of Priests 
— Hostile Attempt of the Iroquois — Grant of Acadia to Sir William 
Alexander — Religious Troubles in France — Capture of Quebec by 
Kirk — The La Tours in Acadia — Treaty of Germain-en-Laye — 
Death of Champlain. 

According to the terms of his grant, which re- 
quired him to make a settlement on the St. Law- 
rence, De Monts sent Champlain to select a site and 
begin the work of building a town. Arriving at the 
spot where Cartier, more than seventy years before, 
had found Stadacone, the capital of Donnacona, 
Champlain selected the same site for his settlement, 
and resolved to build a town on the promontory just 
where the Indian town had stood. All traces of 
Stadacone had now disappeared. The Indians called 
this part of the rivei: Quebec, signifying ''a narrow- 
ing in," or a strait, the river here being only about 
three quarters of a mile in width. 

The history of Quebec has justified the sagacity 
of Champlain's choice. Rising three hundred feet 
above the river, the steep wall of rock forms a 
natural stronghold and commands the stream below. 



36 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1608. 

Here, in July, 1608, Champlain began preparations for 
the oldest permanent settlement in North America, 
except the one at Jamestown, Virginia, which dates 
from 1607. Having first put up some rude barracks 
for temporary shelter, the men made an embankment 
along the present line of Mountain Street. Then 
they built a wooden wall with openings for defencCj, 
and within the wall three houses. Outside the wall 
they dug a moat. 

During the winter Champlain took care to gain the 
friendship of the neighboring Indians. The sup- 
plies at the fort were abundant, and were freely 
divided with the famishing savages, who were ac- 
customed to make very slight provision for winter. 
The Indians of the St. Lawrence belonged to the 
great family of the Algonquins, whose various tribes 
were scattered over Canada, New Brunswick, Nova 
Scotia, the New England and Middle States, except 
New York, and parts of Virginia, Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. 

Their deadly enemies were the Iroquois, or Five 
Nations, including the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onon- 
dagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, who lived in New 
York. In 171 5 the league of the Iroquois was joined 
by the Tuscaroras of Carolina, and hence they are 
often mentioned in history as the Six Nations. The 
Hurons and Eries lay near the lakes which bear their 



i6o9.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 37 

names. At this time the Hurons were in league 
against their kindred, the Iroquois, with the Algon- 
quins of the St. Lawrence. 

These Indians had great hopes of the alliance of 
the French in their warfare against the powerful 
league of the Iroquois ; and in the spring of 1609 
they asked Champlain to join them in an expedition 
to the Mohawk country. Satisfied that his best 
policy lay in the alliance with the Algonquin tribes, 
and anxious to penetrate farther into the ^reat un- 
known region at the west, in the hope of finding 
some clue to the passage to the East Indies, which 
was the dream of all the early voyagers, Champlain 
joined them with eleven other Frenchmen. This 
began an enmity between the French and those 
fierce and powerful tribes, which lasted for more 
than a century and a half. 

The Indians assured Champlain that there was no 
ol^struction along the water route they intended to 
take, and he therefore embarked in a shallop, while 
they took to their canoes. They ascended the St. 
Lawrence and the Sorel or Richelieu, which they 
called the River of the Iroquois. Hearing at length 
the noise of rushing water, Champlain left some of his 
men in charge of the shallop and, pushing on through 
the woods, came to the Chambly Rapid. Unwilling 
to abandon the undertaking, he told the Indians that, 



38 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1609. 

notwithstanding their deception, he would keep his 
promise and go on with them. He sent back the 
shallop with all his men but two, who refused to 
leave him ; and the Indians shouldered their light 
canoes, walked through the woods past the rapid, 
and embarked on the stream above. 

At night they made an encampment, protecting 
themselves on the land side by a strong abatis of 
trees, and arranging the canoes so that in case of a 
surprise they could embark with ease and celerity. 
Then they all went to sleep without sentinels, 
answering Champlain's remonstrances by saying that 
those who labored all day needed rest at night. 

Proceeding up the river, they entered the lake of 
which it is the outlet. To the east and southeast 
lay the rolling summits of the Green Mountains ; to 
the west rose the Adirondacks, covered with silent 
woods, but suggestive of lurking and stealthy war- 
riors of the dreaded nations. To the beautiful sheet 
of water, Champlain, first of white men to look upon 
it, gave his own name. The islands abounded in 
deer, and the beavers worked in peace, for hunters 
were afraid to pursue their game so near the haunts 
of the terrible Iroquois. The Algonquins dared no 
longer advance by day ; they paddled their canoes 
at night, and rested hidden while the sun was up. 

They had told Champlain of another rapid beyond 



i6o9.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 39 

the lake, and another lake beyond that rapid — Lake 
George now — and they intended to go to it. But 
one evening when they were paddling silently up the 
lake at about ten o'clock, another silent fleet of 
canoes suddenly appeared on the water in front of 
them. It was the Iroquois. Both parties took to 
the shore and began to fortify themselves. Then 
the Algonquins sent to ask the Iroquois whether 
they would fight immediately. The answer was that 
it was too dark ; and they all danced and sang and 
shouted boasts and threats at each other through 
the night. 

In the morning they prepared for battle. The Iro- 
quois, about two hundred strong, marched through 
the forest under command of three chiefs, distin- 
guished by the height of the birds' feathers they 
wore. Some had shields of wood or leather, and 
some had coats of mail made of woven twigs and 
cords. The Algonquins and Hurons issued from 
their defences and ran forward two hundred paces. 
When they were before the enemy they halted and 
separated into two divisions, leaving a space in the 
centre for the three Frenchmen. The Iroquois 
looked in wonder at the strange figure of Champlain, 
clad in glittering steel, surmounted by a plumed 
helmet. Then they moved to begin the attack. He 
aimed his arquebuse, into which he had loaded four 



40 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1609. 

balls, and fired ; two of the chiefs fell dead, and the 
third was dangerously wounded. Then the allies 
raised a deafening cry and followed up the charge 
with a shower of arrows. 

The Iroquois stood firm at first and returned the 
charge ; but as Champlain was loading to fire again, 
his companions discharged their pieces, by which the 
frightened Iroquois were thrown into a panic, and 
fled in disorder. The allies pursued them a short 
distance, took some prisoners, and brought away the 
supplies of the enemy, of which they were sadly in 
need. On their way back they halted and brought 
out one of the prisoners for torture. Disgusted with 
their horrible ingenuity, Champlain remonstrated, 
for some time without effect ; but at length he got 
leave to end the sufferings of the poor wretch by a 
shot from his arquebuse. 

One of the Indians dreamed the following night 
that the Iroquois were in pursuit. Not doubting 
the omen, the allies took to flight, only halting when 
they reached the islands above Lake St. Peter, where 
they hid themselves for the night. At Quebec they 
separated, assuring Champlain that they should want 
his help in future wars. 

When he returned from France the next spring, 
they were waiting for him. Another journey up the 
St. Lawrence to the Sorel, another wild engagement, 



i 



i6io.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 4I 

in which Champlain was slightly wounded by an 
arrow, another defeat of the Iroquois, through their 
fright at the strange and deadly weapons of the 
white men, and Champlain was again a hero with 
the Algonquins. They gave him one of their 
prisoners, and the Hurons consented to take home 
with them a Frenchman that he might learn their 
language, on condition that Champlain should take 
with him to France a young Huron, who should 
bring back to them a trustworthy account of the 
country of their white allies, as seen through Huron 
eyes. 

In 161 1 Champlain attempted to establish a trad- 
ing-post at Montreal, and had a site cleared ; but the 
settlement did not thrive. In 161 3, he went there, 
accompanied by a young man named Nicholas de 
Vignan, who had drawn considerable attention to 
himself in France, by stories of his adventures. He 
professed to have ascended the Ottawa River to a 
great lake from which it flowed ; having crossed the 
lake, he said, he discovered another river leading to 
the North Sea ; at the mouth of that river he saw 
the wreck of an English vessel, whose crew had 
been killed by the Indians. All this was told with 
so much detail and apparent honesty, that Cham- 
plain was deceived — the more easily as rumor said 
that Hendrick Hudson, during the voyage in which 



42 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1613. 

he discovered the bay that bears his name, had been 
put into a boat with eight others, and abandoned by 
his mutinous crew. Not doubting that the wreck 
was Hudson's vessel, Champlain resolved to ascend 
the Ottawa without delay, believing that he should 
find the long-sought northwest passage. 

With Nicholas de Vignan, three other French- 
men, and an Indian, he toiled up the river, in canoes, 
which had to be carried past the rapids and falls 
through the tangled forest, until they reached the 
Isle des AUumettes. Here was the home of the 
Ottawas, many of whom had been down to Montreal 
for trade and war, and were known to Champlain. 
They received him with kindness ; but when he 
asked for help to continue his journey to Lake 
Nipissing, they told dreadful stories of the mean- 
ness, treachery, and sorceries of the tribe of the 
Nipissings. 

Champlain said his companion, De Vignan, had 
been there, and had come back in safety. The 
Indians were greatly astonished at this, and plumply 
called Nicholas a liar. 

'' Nicholas," said the chief, ''is it true that you 
said you had been to the Nipissings ?" 

Nicholas was silent for a time, then said in their 
language, of which he had some knowledge, ''Yes, 
I have been there." 



i6i3.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 43 

*'You are an impudent liar," said the chief. 
''You know very well that you went to bed here 
every night with my children and got up every 
morning ; if you went to those people, it must have 
been in your sleep." 

Champlain took Nicholas aside, and conjured him 
to tell the truth. Nicholas swore that all he had 
said was true. Champlain then told the Indians De 
Vignan's whole story — of the lake, and the river to 
the North Sea, and the wrecked ship — all of which 
the Indians insisted were outright lies. In great 
perplexity Champlain took De Vignan aside again, 
and promised if he would now tell the truth to for- 
give what was past ; but threatened that if he should 
be found out in a deception, he should be hanged 
without delay. 

Nicholas thought it over, and then confessed. 
lie had not expected that Champlain would have 
the perseverance to go so far as to discover the 
truth ; and he was anxious to enjoy the glory 
of the discovery. Champlain was so enraged he 
could scarcely endure the sight of him ; but he 
kept his word, protected De Vignan from the In- 
dians, who officiously offered to despatch the liar 
for him, and let him return to Montreal and go on 
his way. 

On his next visit to France, Champlain, who was a 



44 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND {1614. 

man of sincere piety, and is recorded to have fre- 
quently said that the salvation of one soul was of 
more value than the conquest of an empire, obtained 
four Recollect missionaries to return with him, for the 
spiritual welfare of the colony and the conversion of 
the Indians. One of them, Father le Caron, who 
was assigned to the mission among the Hurons, 
went to Montreal with Champlain. There they 
found the Indians assembled for the fur-trade, and 
anxious to get the help of the French in another 
expedition against the Iroquois. Champlain prom- 
ised it, and went to Quebec to get ready. The 
Indians, impatient of the delay, set out for their 
homes to collect their warriors, and Le Caron and 
twelve other Frenchmen went with them. 

Finding them gone, on his return to Montreal, 
Champlain set out to follow them. Passing up the 
Ottawa and the Mattawan, he crossed to Lake 
Nipissing, which he traversed, and entering the 
French River reached the Georgian Bay. He 
coasted along its eastern shore southward, and 
thence went overland to the Huron villages. In 
one of them he found the zealous Recollect, whose 
ardor had been kindled by the sight of so many 
heathen, and who wrote to a friend, '* Alas, when one 
sees such a vast number of infidels, needing but a 
drop of water to make them children of God, what 



{ 



i5t5.] taken by the ENGLISH. 45 

zeal he feels to work for their conversion and to 
sacrifice for it his repose and his hfe !" 

The Indians had built him a chapel of bark, and 
the priest had raised within it an altar with the 
sacred images and the candles ; and after Cham- 
plain's arrival, the first mass was said in the little 
chapel, and the missionary work among the Hurons 
was begun. 

When the war parties of the Indians were all 
gathered, they made their journey to the south- 
east, by way of Lake Simcoe, the Talbot River, 
Balsam Lake, and the rivers Otonabec and Trent, 
to Lake Ontario, and crossed to New York, land- 
ing somewhere near the site of Sackett's Harbor. 
Concealing their canoes, they struck southward, 
were soon among the Iroquois, and attacked some 
small parties whom they found in the woods and 
fields. The Iroquois took refuge in a fortified 
town, probably in the neighborhood of Lake Onon- 
daga. 

The defences consisted of a kind of fort sur- 
rounded by an abatis of trees thirty feet high, which 
supported a gallery where great quantities of stones 
were kept, to be hurled down on assailants. The 
Hurons were repelled at their first attempt to take 
the fort. Then they set fire to the abatis ; but the 
Iroquois had provided against fire by conducting 



46 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1622. 

water within the walls from a pond outside, and the 
flame was soon extinguished. Unable to control 
the Hurons, Champlain was obliged to let them 
carry on the attack in their own way ; and after three 
hours of fighting they retired discomfited. Cham- 
plain, although wounded, favored renewing the at- 
tack ; but the Indians insisted on waiting for some 
promised reenforcements. As these did not arrive, 
the Hurons retreated after five days, and returned 
to their own country. Their confidence in Cham- 
plain was lost ; they had supposed that his presence 
and the use of the fire-arms would always give 
them an easy victory. Sulky and disappointed, 
they refused to keep their agreement to send him 
back to Quebec ; and he was obliged to spend the 
winter among the Hurons. 

In 1622, the Iroquois attempted to exterminate 
the French, in retaliation for the help given to the 
Algonquins. One party attacked some Frenchmen 
who were at the passage of the St. Louis Sault, or 
Rapid, and were repelled with loss. Another party 
went down to Quebec and besieged the convent 
which had been built for the Recollect Fathers on 
the St. Charles. But the fathers had a little fort ; 
and, by means of prayers within and balls without, 
they succeeded in driving off their assailants. The 
Iroquois were forced to content themselves with 



i622.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 47 

some Hurons whom they found not far away, and 
made prisoners. 

After various changes in the management of the 
affairs of the colony, which were not prosperous, 
they had been placed under the control of two 
Huguenots, William de Caen and his nephew 
Emeric. The colony had been carefully kept free 
from Protestants, who would have settled in New 
France in great numbers if they could have been 
allowed to do so and to enjoy the free exercise of 
their religion. De Caen was ordered to take over 
some Jesuits ; but when they arrived he would not 
permit them to stay at the fort or Chateau St» 
Louis, a building which Champlain had begun in 
1620 for the citadel. The jealousies between the 
Jesuits and the authorities, and between the Jesuits 
and the other orders, proved a fruitful source of 
trouble in Quebec for years afterward. On account 
of the complaints of the Jesuits that Emeric de Caen 
obliged Catholic sailors to join in the prayers of his 
Huguenots, De Caen was ordered to stop all Prot- 
estants from praying or singing psalms on the St. 
Lawrence. But the sailors remonstrated, and a 
compromise was finally agreed upon, by which the 
prayers were allowed and the psalm-singing only 
forbidden. 

In 1627, Cardinal Richelieu deposed the De Caens 



48 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1623. 

and put the control of New France into the hands 
of the ** Company of One Hundred Associates." 

After the devastation of Acadia by Argall, the 
country, though claimed by both England and 
France, was neglected by both. Biencourt inher- 
ited a claim to Port Royal from his father, Poutrin- 
court — who held it m right of a grant from the 
French King — and lived in the country with his 
friend, Charles St. Etienne de la Tour, who had 
come to Acadia in boyhood with his father, Claude 
de la Tour, a French Huguenot. In 1623, Bien- 
court died, having bequeathed his interest in Port 
Royal and the surrounding country to Charles de la 
Tour. 

Meantime, the King of England, James I., had 
granted the whole tract of land now forming New 
Brunswick and Nova Scotia, together with the 
peninsula between the mouth of the St. Lawrence 
and the Bay of Chaleurs, to Sir William Alexander, 
afterward Earl of Stirling, a now forgotten poet 
and dramatist. The entire territory was called 
Nova Scotia * and the limits of Nova Scotia and 
Acadia were long afterward a fruitful subject of 
dispute and bloodshed between the English and the 
French. In 1622, Alexander made an unsuccessful 
attempt to plant a colony, and three years later an 
order of Baronets of Nova Scotia was created. 



1625.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 49 

Each baronet was to receive a tract of land six miles 
by three, and in return was to help in the work of 
colonizing the country. 

In 1626, war broke out \n France between the 
Catholics and Protestants. Rochelle, the strong- 
hold of the Huguenots, was held by the rebels, and 
Richelieu was besieging it, determined to put an 
end to the Protestant power in the kingdom. The 
city was making a desperate resistance, and Charles 
I. of England sent a fleet to the help of the rebels. 
Charles de la Tour, who had built a fort near Cape 
Sable, sent to France for arms and ammunition to 
prepare him for defence, in case the English should 
take advantage of the troubles in Europe to attack 
Acadia. The message was taken by his father, who 
came back bringing the supplies, in company with 
one De Roquemont, who had charge of cannon, 
ammunition, and stores for Quebec. 

When hostilities opened between England and 
France, an expedition was fitted out under the 
auspices of Sir William Alexander to attack the 
French in America, and the command was given to 
Sir David Kirk, a Huguenot of Dieppe, who had 
fled from religious persecution in France. 

Stopping at Tadoussac with his ships, Kirk sent a 
party to destroy the settlement at Cape Tourmente, 
and another to summon Quebec to surrender. 



so QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1629. 

Champlain answered that he should hold his position 
to the last, and, putting his poor defences in the 
best possible order, waited anxiously for the ex- 
pected supplies from France. But Roquemont's 
ships were intercepted by Kirk, who took some of 
them and sank the rest in the river. Supposing, 
from Champlain 's answer to his summons, that 
Quebec was strongly fortified and garrisoned, he 
made no further attempt at the time to take it. 
But the following year he sent his brother Louis 
to besiege it. The loss of Roquemont's supplies, 
and the wrecking of another vessel which had been 
sent over with food, had reduced the people of 
Quebec almost to starvation, and they took to the 
w^oods, where they dug roots and picked up acorns 
for food. Many of them wandered off to the 
Indians ; some made their way to the sea-coast in 
the hope of getting a passage to France in fishing- 
boats. Champlain had only sixteen men left to 
defend the fort, and as Kirk offered favorable 
terms, he surrendered without resistance. The 
soldiers were to march out with their arms and 
baggage and a beaver robe apiece ; the friars with 
their clothing and books ; everything else was to be 
left in the fort. The French were to be furnished 
with a vessel to take them to France. Louis Kirk 
took possession of Quebec, July 20th, 1629, and the 



1629.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 51 

banner of St. George waved on its heights for the 
first time, just one hundred and thirty years before 
the victory of Wolfe. 

The elder La Tour, who was with Roque- 
mont's fleet, was taken prisoner and carried to 
England. There he was presented at court and re- 
ceived with great favor. Moved, perhaps, by the 
treatment of Protestants in France, he renounced 
his allegiance to his own country, married one of 
the maids of honor of the Queen of England, was 
created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and received a 
grant of land there from Sir William Alexander. 
His son was invested with the same title and was to 
share the territory with him. In return. La Tour 
agreed to plant a Scotch colony and convey to the 
English his son's fort at Cape Sable. 

In 1630, he went over with his colonists in two 
ships ; but his son received the proposal to throw off 
allegiance to France with great indignation, much to 
the discomfiture of his father, who had had no 
doubts of success. After several attempts to per- 
suade his son to a change of mind, he landed his 
men and assaulted the fort, but failed to capture it, 
and then took his Scotch colonists to Port Royal. 
When it became probable that Acadia would be 
given up to France by England, his son invited him 
to Cape Sable, and built a house for him outside the 



52 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1632. 

walls of the fort, stlpulatrng^ that neither he nor his 
wife should ever set foot within them. 

Champlain urged upon the French Government 
the policy of insisting on the restoration of New 
France when the treaty of peace should be made. 
The question was seriously debated whether it was 
worth while to keep and colonize Canada. All 
attempts so far had involved large outlays, with 
small returns. There was no mineral wealth, such 
as the Spaniards and Portuguese had brought front 
their colonies ; and Spain and Portugal, with all the 
treasure from Mexico and Peru, had declined rather 
than grown stronger. 

On the other hand, it was argued that the right 
means had not yet been taken ; that the monopolies 
granted to individuals had interfered with coloniza- 
tion ; that New France might be peopled with the 
overflow of population at home ; that mines might 
still be discovered there ; that the fur-trade and 
fisheries, properly conducted, might be a great 
source of wealth ; and, above all, that France owed 
a religious duty to the heathen of the western 
wilds. 

The restoration of New France was finally made 
one of the conditions In the treaty between the two 
powers which was signed at St. Germain-en-Laye, 
March 29th, 1632, when Canada, Acadia, and Cape 



1 632.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 53 

Breton came once more under the dominion of 
France. 

Champlain died in the fort at Quebec, December 
25th, 1635, and was buried in a sepulchre built by 
the colonists, the site of which is not very definitely 
indicated in the accounts of the time. About the 
year 1866, the Abb6 Laverdiere found traces of the 
tomb on the site of the Recollect Chapel in Cham- 
plain Street. The ground had been broken up the 
year before for the laying of water-pipes ; but a 
vault was found containing a coffin and human 
bones, apparently those of some distinguished per- 
son, and near by were the remains of three others* 
On a wall of the vault which was still standing was 
found a part of the name, Samvel de Champlain. 

Champlain *s adventurous and courageous spirit, 
combined with his pure and disinterested motives, 
and his remarkably clear and far-sighted judgment, 
make him one of the most attractive and heroic 
characters in the early history of America.' Though 
an enthusiast in the work to which he gave his life, 
he was forbearing toward the cowardice, the avarice, 
and the half heartedness of colleagues, even when 
they retarded and almost ruined his work. Though 
faithful to his creed, narrow in the interpretation of 
it, as was the fashion of his age, and zealous in 
spreading it, he never appears as a persecutor. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. 

The Iroquois — Fate of the Hurons — Fight at the Long Sault — Forts 
on the Richelieu — Montreal — The Jesuits — Discoveries in the 
Mississippi Valley — La Salle — La Chine — Iberville on the Gulf of 
Mexico. 

The history of Canada for many years after the 
death of Champlain is little more than the history 
of the Jesuit missions and the fierce battles of the 
Algonquins and Iroquois, in which the French 
suffered with their Indian allies. The Mohawks had 
not only recovered from their superstitious fear of 
fire-arms, but had supplied themselves with them 
from Dutch traders in the New Netherlands. De- 
termined to exterminate the Hurons and Algonquins, 
they descended the St. Lawrence in war parties, and 
surprised their foes on the way down to the French 
settlements with their loads of bear and beaver 
skins for the summer trade. 

The Governor of Quebec built a fort at the mouth 
of the Richelieu to intercept them ; but they easily 
avoided its guns by shouldering their birchen canoes 
at a point above and carrying them northeastward 
throu^i^h the woods, to be launched on the St. 



i 



1650.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST, 55 

Lawrence below, while the garrison would not dis- 
cover that they had passed. 

By 1650, the Hurons were almost annihilated. 
Their principal towns had been burned, and the in- 
habitants slaughtered, dispersed, or carried away. 
A remnant was taken to Quebec by the missionaries, 
and settled in several places successively in the 
vicinity of the city. Some of them are said to be 
still living at the last place to which they were re- 
moved, called New Lorette, Some settled among 
their conquerors in Central New York, where they 
clung to the religion taught them by the Jesuits, 
and many good Catholics were found among them 
by missionaries in 1668. That part called the 
Tobacco Nation wandered from place to place 
through the Northwest, driven by the Iroquois 
and the tribes among which they attempted to 
settle. They rested successively on the Island of 
Michilimackinac, the western shore of Lake Mich- 
igan, the banks of the Mississippi, the western 
shore of Lake Superior, the Strait of Mackinaw 
once more, and at last at the western end of Lake 
Erie, where they were known as Wyandots. Under 
this name they fought with the French against the 
English. 

In 1660, when a large party of the Iroquois were 
on their way to attack Quebec, a company of seven- 



56 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1660. 

teen men, all between twenty-one and thirty-one 
years of age, under Adam Dollard, Sieur des 
Ormeaux, asked leave of the commandant of 
Montreal, in whose garrison they were, to go out 
and attack them. It was almost certain death ; but 
their enthusiasm would take no denial, and the 
commandant gave a reluctant consent. 

They were joined by a party of forty Hurons and 
four Algonquins, and at the foot of the Long Sault 
took possession of an old palisaded fort, built long 
before by the Algonquins. The Iroquois came, and a 
desperate fight ensued. The assailants were repeated- 
ly repelled, and the French party, though suffering for 
want of water, held out bravely ; but after four or 
five days they were deserted by all the Hurons ex- 
cept their chief, Etienne Annahotaha, persuaded by 
some of their countrymen who had been adopted by 
the Iroquois, and who told them that a large re- 
cnforcement was on the way. 

The reenforcement came, but the fort held out 
three days longer. All the Frenchmen fell but one, 
and he, badly wounded, was carried away by the 
victors. The Hurons who deserted were treated as 
prisoners. But the Iroquois, although victorious, 
were discouraged and demoralized by the bravery 
of the heroes of the Long Sault, and returned to 
their own country. 



iC65.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. $f 

In 1665, the Marquis de Tracy was sent over with 
two hundred soldiers to subdue the Iroquois. A 
fort was built, under command of an officer named 
Chambly, at the rapids in the Richelieu which bear 
his name, and another was erected on the site of the 
old Fort Richelieu, which had been built at the 
mouth of the river in 1642. The new fort was in 
charge of an officer named Sorel, whose name is pre- 
served in that of the town and river. Sali^res, the 
Colonel, built a third fort above Chambly, called St. 
Theresa. The three western of the Five Nations 
were now at peace with the French, but the Mo- 
hawks and Oneidas continued hostile. 

Courcelle, the Governor of Canada, and Tracy 
marched their men into the Mohawk country, and 
took their five important towns, the Indians flying 
at their approach without striking a blow. In 1667 
the Mohawks asked for French mechanics and mis- 
sionaries to be sent among them. The request was 
granted, and the French had almost unbroken peace 
with them for twenty years. 

According to the authorities, the founding of 
Montreal was brought about in a wholly supernatural 
way. A gentleman of moderate fortune, named 
Dauversi^re, living at La Fl^che in Anjou, was di- 
rected by a mysterious inward voice to establish a 
hospital-convent on the island of Montreal, in the 



58 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1641. 

St. Lawrence ; and about the same time a priest 
named John James Olier de Verneuil was also di- 
rected by an inward voice to send priests to the 
island of Montreal, to bring the American Indians 
into the true church. It is said that neither knew 
anything of the place ; particulars regarding New 
France were published every year by the Jesuits, 
but these men saw the island in visions. 

At length they chanced to meet, knew each other 
at once, and understood their common design. They 
formed a plan for establishing religious communities 
on the island, and for raising a colony to accompany 
them, and were soon joined by others, obtained a 
title to the island, raised some money, and resolved 
to send out forty men to begin a settlement under 
Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, who took 
charge in the same spirit of pious zeal which actuated 
the founders. 

More associates were soon added to the company, 
many of them women of wealth, and another mira- 
cle supplied a leader for the nuns. Mademoiselle 
Jeanne Mance felt herself called to labor in Canada, 
and her spiritual director assured her that the call 
was doubtless divine. Chancing to go into a church 
at Rochelle, after she had determined to go, she met 
Dauversiere, when the two instantly knew each 
other and understood each other's secret intentions, 



1 642.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. 59 

as had happened before with Dauversi^re and Olier. 
Mademoiselle Mance went with Maisonneuve and his 
colony, in 1641, and in 1642 they laid the foun- 
dations of Montreal, which they called Villemarie — ■ 
the town of Mary. 

During all these years the missionaries were per- 
forming wonders of courage and devotion among 
the ungrateful and treacherous savages. Father 
Nicholas Viel, a Recollect, on his way home from 
among the Hurons to spend a time in retirement at 
Quebec, was drowned by the treacherous Indians 
who were bringing him in a canoe down the rapid of 
the River of the Prairies, back of Montreal ; and the 
rapid is still called the '' Sault au Recollect." 
Fathers Garneau and Mesnard were murdered by the 
Ottawas. 

The Jesuits were ready to enter every dangerous 
field, and even to rush to martyrdom ; they estab- 
lished missions among the Hurons, notably that of 
Sainte Marie on the River Wye ; they even at- 
tempted the conversion of the Iroquois. Father 
Isaac Jogues, taken prisoner by them as he was re- 
turning from the Huron mission, might have escaped, 
but thought it his duty to remain with his cap- 
tive converts and prepare them for death. With 
two lay associates of his order, Goupil and Couture, 
he was carried to the Mohawk country and made to 



6a THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1644, 

suffer every torture that savage Ingenuity could 
devise. Goupil was murdered on suspicion of 
having bewitched children with the sign of the 
cross. 

Jogues suffered not only from his wounds, but 
from hunger ; for he would not eat meat that had 
been offered to heathen gods. But he thought him- 
self sufficiently rewarded by the opportunity of 
baptizing a few children and dying Indians. The 
following summer, going with a fishing- party to a 
place near Fort Orange, now Albany, he was assisted 
to escape by a Dutch trader ; and the Dutch after- 
ward paid a ransom for him, of the value of three 
hundred livres. He and his companions were the 
first white men to look on Lake George. At his 
next visit, three years later, he named it Lake St. 
Sacrament. 

He went to France from New York, but returned 
to Canada In 1644, and v^olunteered to establish a 
mission In the Iroquois country in 1645, Unde- 
terred by the recollection of the horrors of his 
former visit, he went back ; but a sickness that pre- 
vailed among them during the summer, and the de- 
struction of their harvest by caterpillars, were laid 
to the evil spell of a box of papers which he had 
left among them during a short absence. Jogues 
was seized on his return, and after being beaten, 



1646.1 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. 6i 

hacked, and treated with the utmost cruelty and 
indignity, was killed by a blow from a hatchet. 
His companion, Father Lalande, shared his fate, 
and their heads were set up on the palisades of the 
town. 

Father de Nou6, a Huron missionary, was found 
kneeling and frozen in the snow, in a midwinter 
journey to Fort Richelieu. Father Daniel was in 
the Huron town of St. Joseph when it was assailed 
by the Iroquois, and busied himself among the 
panic-stricken inhabitants, baptizing and absolving. 
When the assailants forced an entrance, he directed 
those near him where to fly, and went to meet the 
enemy to gain time for them. A shower of arrows 
was sent at him ; but the undaunted priest threatened 
the assailants with the vengeance of God, at the same 
time assuring them that repentance would gain his 
favor. A shot pierced his heart, he fell dead, and 
was burned in his church, where his body was thrown 
by the victors. 

Charles Garnier and Noel Chabanel fell, the first 
by the Iroquois at St, Jean, the other by a renegade 
Huron convert who fancied the Christian religion 
had been the destruction of the Huron nation. 
Jacques Buteux was slain by the Iroquois on a toil- 
some winter journey to the nation of the White 
Fish, whose country was north of Three Rivers. 



62 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1667. 

Jean de Br^beuf and Gabriel Lalemant were taken 
at the Huron town of St. Louis when it was de- 
stroyed by the Iroquois, and slain after horrible tor- 
tures. The skull of Brebeuf — whose body, together 
with that of Lalemant, was found on the scene of 
his martyrdom — is still preserved at the Hotel-Dieu 
in Quebec, together with a silver bust of him which 
his relatives sent over from France. 

In the pursuit of their calling, the Jesuits pene- 
trated far beyond the frontiers of the colonies, and 
discovered lands and waters never before seen by 
Europeans. It was due in part to their explorations 
that the French laid claim to the Mississippi Valley 
and the region of the Great Lakes, and that they 
gained the alliance of so many of the tribes that in- 
habited the West, by whose help they came so near 
establishing their claim. Father Claude Allouez, a 
missionary to the Ottawas, explored the southern 
shore of Lake Superior in 1667, and in 1670, with 
Father Dablon, he explored the regions about the 
Upper Wisconsin. In 1673, Father Marquette, with 
Louis Joliet, discovered the Mississippi, and de- 
scended as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. Father 
Hennepin accompanied La Salle down the Illinois 
and up the Mississippi, and wrote descriptions of 
his voyages. 

One of the most renowned of French explorers of 



1669.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. 63 

the interior of the continent was Robert Cavelier do 
la Salle. Hearing of the great rivers at the west, he 
collected a party to go in search of them in 1669. 
The party numbered twenty-two, and included a 
priest, DoUier de Casson, noted for his great size 
and strength. It Avas said of him that when in his 
full strength, he could stretch out his arms and hold 
a man on each hand. The party set out from La 
Salle's seigniory on the St. Lawrence, which he 
called St. Sulpice. It was near the La Chine rap- 
ids, eight or nine miles from Montreal. They gave 
out that they were going to find a western pas- 
sage to China. In Western New York they met 
Joliet, and learned something of his discoveries. 
For some reason, La Salle and others of the party 
returned to the St. Lawrence ; and on this account, 
it is said, his place was called in derision, La Chine 
(China), a name which it still retains and which is 
now applied to the rapid. De Casson and some of 
his companions went on, and were the first to sail 
through Lakes Erie and St. Clair, 

In 1678, La Salle, having received a monopoly of 
the trade in buffalo-skins for five years, and per- 
mission to establish forts and trading-posts at the 
West, set out again. He built Fort Miami at the 
mouth of the St. Joseph, and Fort Crevecoeur on 
the site of Peoria, Illinois. In 1682, he descended 



64 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1702. 

the Mississippi to its mouth, and took possession 
for France. In 1684, he brought a colony of two 
hundred and eighty persons to form a settlement on 
the Mississippi ; but they missed the mouth of the 
river and, going on to the shores of Texas, landed at 
Matagorda Bay. One of their four ships, the store- 
ship, was wrecked, and two were taken away by the 
naval officer in charge. A fort called St. Louis was 
built ; but the colony languished, and in 1687 not 
more than one seventh remained. La Salle started 
northward by land with several companions ; but 
some of them formed a conspiracy and assassinated 
him near a branch of Trinity River, while the 
survivors of his colony were nearly all murdered by 
the Indians. 

In 1699, D' Iberville and his brother De Bienville, 
planted a French Colony on the Bay of Biloxi, the 
first in the present state of Mississippi. French 
Protestants asked leave to settle on the lower Mis- 
sissippi, but were told that the King had not driven 
Huguenots from France to form a republic of them 
in America. In 1702 a fort was built on the Mobile 
River by the colonists of Biloxi— the first settlement 
in Alabama — and another was placed at the mouth 
of the Mississippi. 

The French had now a chain of forts and trading- 
posts from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. 



I702.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. 65 

The oldest settlement in the Mississippi Valley is 
Kaskaskia, originally a Jesuit mission ; and besides 
the stations at St. Joseph and Peoria, there were 
posts at Detroit, Chicago, Vincennes, and other 
places on the line of the great lakes and rivers. 



CHAPTER V. 

ACADIA. 

Destruction of English Trading-Stations — Feud between Charnisay 
and La Tour — Capture of Acadia by the EngHsh — Restoration to 
France by the Treaty of Breda — St. Castine at Penobscot — Attack 
by Andros — HostiHties by Indians — War between England and 
France. 

After the restoration of Acadia to France by 
the treaty of 1632, grants were made to Frenchmen 
in the country, and some colonists were sent out. 
There was room for a variety of interpretations of 
the treaty in regard to the territory near the Penob- 
scot and Kennebec Rivers, according to the under- 
standing of the limits of Acadia. The English trad- 
ing-stations at Penobscot and Machias were broken 
up by parties of Frenchmen and the traders were 
plundered of their goods. The Plymouth colony 
attempted to re-take Penobscot ; but the French 
had strengthened the place and continued to hold it, 
warning the English to encroach no farther than 
Pemaquid. 

The principal grants of territory in Acadia were 
made to Nicholas Denys, Isaac de Razillay, and 
Charles La Tour. De Razillay 's rights passed into 



i635] ACADIA. 67 

the possession of D'Aulnay de Charnisay ; and the 
story of a strange feud between him and La Tour is 
the history of Acadia for years. La Tour's fort 
and trading-station was at the mouth of the St. 
John, Charnisay's at Port Royal. Disputes and 
jealousies arose between them as early as 1635 ; and 
Charnisay attempted to dislodge his enemy by 
means of his influence at court. 

He laid before the King and the Prime Minister 
accusations of treason and other crimes against La 
Tour ; and in 1641 an order was sent to the accused 
to appear and make answer to the charges. At the 
same time Charnisay was ordered to seize him and 
take control of his fort, if he should refuse to obey 
the order. La Tour refused, on the ground that the 
order was based on misrepresentations. The vessel 
sent to take him to France carried back letters from 
Charnisay giving accounts of La Tour's defiance, 
and before the end of the year he himself went to 
France for help against his rival. 

La Tour put his defences in the best possible 
order, and sent a messenger to Boston, a Huguenot 
from Rochelle, to propose an alliance. Though La 
Tour himself had been a Protestant, he had professed 
the Catholic faith ; but his wife was still a Prot- 
estant, and Charnisay used that fact to excite 
prejudice against them at the French court. The 



68 ACADIA. [1643. 

authorities at Boston readily accepted La Tour's 
proposal for free trade between his colony and 
theirs ; but they were more wary when it came to 
the question of furnishing him aid against Charnisay, 
and promised nothing. The next year La Tour 
sent his lieutenant to Boston with fourteen men and 
letters to John Winthrop, again asking assistance. 

The people of Boston treated La Tour's men 
with great consideration, and were edified at their 
respectful attendance at the Puritan meetings, 
though they were Catholics. The lieutenant ac- 
cepted with thanks, from one of the elders, a Testa- 
ment in French, with notes by a Protestant minis- 
ter, and promised to read it. He induced some of 
the merchants to fit out a ship and send it at once 
to open the trade. 

On its way back, this ship stopped at Pemaquid, 
where it happened to meet Charnisay. He showed 
the officers an order from France for the arrest of 
La Tour, and gave them notice that he would seize 
any vessel he should find trading with the rebel. By 
giving mortgages on his lands to one Le Borgne, he 
had raised a large amount of money, with which he 
bought five vessels and hired five hundred men to 
serve against La Tour. 

Failing of support from New England, La Tour 
sent to Rochelle in France, and a large armed ves- 



i643] ACADIA. 69 

sel, carrying one hundred and forty men, was sent 
to him from that city. When this ship, the 
Clement y reached St. John, she found the harbor 
blockaded by Charnisay, who had come with two 
ships, several small vessels, and five hundred men, 
to assault the fort. Failing to take it, he es- 
tablished a blockade, hoping to starve the garrison 
into surrender. La Tour and his wife now stole 
out of the fort one night, reached the Clement in a 
small boat, and sailed directly to Boston, where La 
Tour with some of his men landed at Winthrop's 
garden on Governor's Island. 

The Governor called a meeting of the magistrates 
for the next day, and the captain of the Clement, to 
authenticate his mission, laid before them letters 
from the Vice-Admiral of France and the agent of 
the Company of New France, authorizing him to 
carry supplies to La Tour, who was called the King's 
Lieutenant-General in Acadia. The fact that these 
papers were issued when an order for La Tour's 
arrest was in the hands of Charnisay, is explained by 
the confusion in the administration of the govern- 
ment, caused by the recent death of Richelieu, and 
the expected death of the King, Louis XIIL, who 
died in May, 1643, before the Clement reached the 
St. John. 

On the evidence of these documents, the author!- 



70 ACADIA. [1643. 

ties of Boston gave him permission to hire men and 
vessels with which to relieve his fort. The merchants 
of Boston were anxious to see La Tour reinstated, 
not only from friendship toward him, but for the 
interests of trade ; for Charnisay was unfriendly and 
would have no commerce with them. Two of them 
let to La Tour four vessels, with fifty-two men and 
thirty-eight pieces of ordnance ; and he raised a 
force of ninety-two soldiers and armed them for 
service. The agreement was, that these vessels 
should accompany La Tour to St. John and aid the 
French ship in his defence in case Charnisay's forces 
should attempt to interfere with him. The owners 
of the ships sent an agent authorized to determine 
how far La Tour should be allowed to use them in 
the operations against his enemy. The New Eng- 
land soldiers were commanded by Captain Hawkins. 
Not until the five ships appeared in sight of the 
harbor of St. John did Charnisay suspect that La 
Tour was not shut up with his men inside the fort. 
Not daring to cope with the force brought against 
him, he ordered his vessels to set sail at once for 
Port Royal. La Tour's fleet gave chase, and Char- 
nisay ran his ships aground opposite the mill of 
Port Royal, and his men went to work to strengthen 
the defences. Captain Hawkins sent Charnisay a 
letter from Governor Winthrop, explaining the atti- 



i643] ACADIA. 7 1 

tude of his government in the matter, and propos- 
ing a reconciliation between him and La Tour ; but 
Charnisay would not open the letter, because the 
address did not give him his title of Lieutenant- 
General, and he sent the captain a copy of the order 
for La Tour's arrest. 

As the messenger reported that Charnisay's men 
seemed confused and frightened, La Tour wanted to 
make an attack at once, and Hawkins gave his men 
permission to follow him if they chose to do so. 
About thirty of them joined in the attack, and Char- 
nisay's men were driven from the mill, three being 
killed and one taken prisoner. The New England- 
ers escaped without loss. La Tour lost three men. 
On the way back to his fort the ships took a pinnace 
of Charnisay's, loaded with a great quantity of 
moose and beaver-skins, which were divided between 
La Tour and the crews and owners of the Boston 
ships. Much uneasiness was felt in Boston about 
the seizure of Charnisay's pinnace, from fear that it 
would involve them in a quarrel with that enterpris- 
ing and dangerous rascal. 

Charnisay built a new fort at Port Royal, and then 
sailed for France to get more help to crush La Tour ; 
while soon after his arrival there, La Tour's wife 
reached Rochelle, in search of aid for her husband. 
Charnisay, by his influence at court, obtained an 



72 ACADIA. [1644. 

order for her arrest on the same ground as that for 
the arrest of her husband — that she was a traitor and 
a rebel. Hearing of it in time, she fled to Eng- 
land ; and finding friends there, she set sail for 
Acadia, in a ship loaded with supplies and muni- 
tions of war. The ship carried as a passenger Roger 
Williams, famous in the history of New England. 

The master of the vessel spent so much time in 
trading on the way, that it was six months before 
they reached Acadia, and on the coast they fell in 
with a vessel sent out by Charnisay to watch for 
them. The master concealed Lady La Tour and her 
party, and gave out that he was on the way to Bos- 
ton ; by which means they escaped, but the ship 
was obliged to go on to its pretended destination. 
When they reached that port, Lady La Tour 
brought suit against the owners of the ship for the 
damage she had sustained by the delay, and was 
awarded two thousand pounds. In satisfaction of 
this judgment, she seized the cargo of the ship, 
valued at eleven hundred pounds, and hired some 
Boston vessels to take her home with her supplies. 

Before she was ready to sail for St. John, a mes- 
senger from Charnisay, Monsieur Marie, accom- 
panied by ten Frenchmen, arrived in Boston with 
orders for the arrest of La Tour and his wife, and 
asked that the people of New England should help 



I644-] ACADIA. 73 

Charnisay to carry out the King's commands, or at 
least should refrain from giving any further aid to 
the rebel. 

The magistrates explained their neutral position 
and their desire to effect a reconciliation between 
the rivals. Marie said La Tour should be assured 
of life and liberty if he would voluntarily surrender, 
but if taken in his rebellion he would be sure to 
lose his head ; and Charnisay was determined to 
capture his wife on her way home, believing her to 
be the cause of her husband's obstinate rebellion. 
At length the magistrates agreed to sign a treaty of 
peace with Charnisay ; but they reserved for their 
people the right to trade with whomsoever they 
chose. Having obtained this agreement, Marie hur- 
ried away before Madame La Tour set sail, in the 
hope of giving information to Charnisay in time for 
him to take her prisoner on her way, but he was 
too late ; and Madame La Tour reached St. John 
in safety. 

Charnisay soon had an opportunity for retalia- 
tion. La Tour went to Boston and sent back a 
small vessel laden with stores. Charnisay captured 
it and turned the crew, all English, out on a deso .. 
late island covered with snow, and kept them there 
ten days without fire and with no shelter but a ruin- 
ous cabin. Then he sent them home in an old shal- 



74 ACADIA. [1645. 

lop, without a compass ; but they managed to get 
safely to Boston. 

As Charnisay's ship was sailing away, it was 
hailed by two monks on the coast of the mainland, 
who wished to be taken on board. They had been 
sent out from the fort by Madame La Tour, on the 
discovery that they were secretly plotting in favor 
of Charnisay. They told him the fort could be 
easily taken ; La Tour was away, and the place was 
poorly supplied with men and munitions. Charni- 
say therefore pressed on for another attack. But 
Madame La Tour was not disposed to surrender ; 
she directed a fire against the ship, which killed 
twenty men and wounded thirteen, and Charnisay 
then retired in disappointment and wrath. 

Two months later he returned to the attack once 
more. He had kept La Tour from reaching his fort 
by the vessels watching in the Bay of Fundy. La 
Tour's wife, however, withstood the siege three 
days, compelling Charnisay at that time to draw off 
his forces ; and had it not been for the treachery of 
a sentry, who betrayed the fort for a bribe, she 
might have been finally successful. The traitor 
allowed the enemy to scale the walls while the gar- 
rison were at prayers. Even then the lady put her- 
self at the head of the men, and made a spirited re- 
sistance. Charnisay at length offered to grant life 



1646.] ACADIA. 75 

and liberty to the garrison if the fort were surren- 
dered ; and knowing that she must yield at last, and 
anxious to save the lives of her men, the lady 
accepted the terms. 

No sooner was Charnisay in possession, than, dis- 
regarding his compact entirely, he hanged all the 
garrison but one man, saving him only on the con- 
dition that he should act as the hangman. He com- 
pelled the lady to witness the execution with a rope 
around her neck, to signify that she deserved the 
same fate. Broken by the horrible scene, and the 
dangers and excitements of the siege, Madame La 
Tour lived only three weeks after the surrender of 
the fort, while her husband remained in Boston, 
ruined in fortune and homeless. 

The next year Charnisay concluded a treaty of 
peace with New England. He claimed eight thou- 
sand pounds damages for the attack on his mill by 
the men under Hawkins in 1643 ; but his commis- 
sioners finally agreed to accept a small present by 
way of acknowledgment that the New Englanders 
were in the wrong in that affair. Governor Win- 
throp had an elegant sedan chair which had been on 
its way from the Viceroy of Mexico to his sister in 
Spain in a Spanish ship, when the ship was seized 
by an English adventurer, who gave it to Winthrop. 
This chair was frugally devoted to the work of 



76 ACADIA. [1647. 

repairing the friendship with Charnisay ; and his 
commissioners departed with it and the treaty of 
peace. 

In the following year Charnisay received a com- 
mission making him Governor and Lieutenant- 
General for the King in Acadia, and giving him the 
exclusive right to the fur-trade and the products 
of the mines. It remained for him to drive out 
Nicholas Denys, who was established in the eastern 
part of the peninsula, but this was accomplished 
much more easily and speedily than the expulsion 
of La Tour. The forts of Denys were taken, his 
fishing stations broken up, and himself and his 
family sent into exile. 

Charnisay was now supreme in Acadia, and high 
in royal favor. His commission gave him the credit 
of having upheld the royal authority against armed 
rebels, of having built a seminary, provided friars 
to bring the Indians to a knowledge of the true 
religion, and driven foreigners from the King's do- 
minions at the mouth of the Penobscot. But he 
did not long enjoy his triumph. In 1650 he was 
drowned in the river of Port Royal. 

After the capture of his fort and the death of his 
wife, La Tour went to Newfoundland to get help 
from the Governor. Failing in this, he spent the 
following years in Boston and Quebec, until news 



1653.] ACADIA. 77 

reached him of the death of Charnisay. He then 
went at once to France, received an acquittal from 
all the charges against him, and a commission as 
Governor and Lieutenant-General for the King in 
Acadia, and returned to take possession of his old 
fort. Charnisay's widow and children were still 
living in Acadia. Madame de Charnisay made an 
agreement with the Duke de Vendome, by which 
he was to help her to recover the rights granted to 
her husband, and to share with her and her children 
in the possessions to be recovered. But before any- 
thing had been done toward dislodging La Tour and 
Denys, who had also returned to his forts, La Tour 
entered into a compact with Madame de Charnisay 
which superseded the agreement with the Duke, 
consolidated the claims, and restored peace between 
the families. This- was no less than a contract of 
marriage between La Tour and Madame de Charni- 
say, signed in February, 1653. 

At this time a new claimant appeared in the per- 
son of Le Borgne, to whom Charnisay had mort- 
gaged his possessions. He was proceeding to dis- 
possess La Tour and Denys, when he was interrupt- 
ed by an enemy from without. Four vessels had 
been sent from England for operations against the 
Dutch colonies, and men were enlisted in Massachu- 
setts ; but news arrived of peace between England 



78 ACADIA. [1654. 

and Holland, and the force was turned against the 
French in Acadia. La Tour surrendered at the first 
summons, being without provisions or stores for de- 
fence, and Le Borgne gave up Port Royal after a 

' slight resistance. Acadia was now once more in 
the hands of the English, and garrisons of New 
England men were placed in the forts ; but the 
French settlers and missionaries were allowed to 
remain. 

La Tour, with his usual activity and fertility in 
resources, sailed to England and appealed to Crom- 
well to confirm to him the grant made to him and 
his father jointly by Sir William Alexander in 1630. 
The success which seemed always to attend him 
when he pleaded his cause in person, attended him 
here. Cromwell granted to him, in connection with 
two of his own faithful followers — Thomas Temple 
and William Crowne — an im.mense tract of land, in- 
cluding the whole coast of the Bay of Fundy to a 
distance of one hundred leagues inland, all of the 
peninsula, and a large part of the present State of 
Maine. A small rent was to be paid in beaver- 

T skins, and only Protestants were to be allowed to 
settle in the country, but the French Catholic set- 
tlers already there were not to be disturbed. La 
Tour soon sold out his rights to Temple, and retired 
from public affairs. Temple made great improve- 



i688.] ACADIA. 79 

ments, and began to receive large returns in trade 
for his outlay, when the subject of the restoration 
of Acadia to France was again brought forward. 

In 1667, by the treaty of Breda, which closed the 
war that England had been waging for two years 
with Holland and France, France gave back to Eng- 
land half of the Island of St. Christopher, which she 
had taken, and received Acadia. 

The disputed post of Penobscot, or Pentagoet, 
was now occupied by the Baron de St. Castin, who 
carried on a large trade there. He had lived a long 
time among the savages, married an Indian wife, 
and had great influence over all the tribes of that 
region, belonging to the family of the Abenaquis. 
In the spring of 1688, Edmund Andros, Governor 
of New England, attacked St. Castin, on the ground 
that the land was included in a grant made to the 
Duke of York, at this time James II., King of Eng- 
land. St. Castin and his family fled to the woods, 
and Andros plundered his dwelling. The result of 
this was, that the Indians became restless, incited, 
it was supposed, by St. Castin ; but the Revolution 
in England by which James II. lost the throne 
brought on a war between France and England, and 
the colonies in America prepared for hostilities. 



CHAPTER VI. 

KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 

Iroquois Attack on Montreal — Plan of the French — Capture of Eng- 
lish Posts at Hudson Bay — Massacres at Dover, Saco, and Pema- 
quid — Three Expeditions Planned by Frontenac — The Schenectady 
Massacre — Salmon Falls Destroyed — Attack on Casco — Expedi 
tion Planned by the English — Sir William Phips — Capture of Port 
Royal — Schuyler at La Prairie — Phips at Quebec. 

At the opening of this war, the French had the 
post at Fort Frontenac, where Kingston, Canada, 
now stands, and one at Niagara, besides those on 
the western lakes and in the Mississippi Valley. In 
July, 1689, a thousand Iroquois attacked Montreal, 
massacred men, women, and children, burned houses, 
laid waste the fields, and carried away prisoners and 
plunder. The garrison at Fort Frontenac, panic- 
stricken, destroyed the fort and fled down the river 
in canoes, many of them losing their lives in shoot- 
ing the rapids. x\fter this disaster, the Governor, 
Denonville, was superseded by the former Gov- 
ernor, Count de Frontenac, one of the most efficient 
officers and one of the most striking and pict- 
uresque characters in the whole history of Canada. 

Frontenac was instructed to carry out a plan laid 



1689.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 81 

before the Government by Callieres, commandant 
at Montreal. Callieres was to ascend Lake Cham- 
plain under pretence of marching against the Iro- 
quois, then surprise and take Albany, descend the 
Hudson, and seize New York, thus giving the French 
the finest harbor on the coast, and cut off the Iro- 
quois from receiving arms and ammunition from 
the English. Callieres was then to be appointed 
Governor of Albany and New York. He was in- 
structed to allow only French Catholics in the prov- 
ince ; the French Huguenots already there were 
to be sent to France, and all other Protestants ban- 
ished to other colonies. A fleet was sent over to 
attack New York while Callieres was engaged in 
land operations, and Frontenac came over in one of 
the vessels, as did also some Iroquois whom Denon- 
ville had treacherously seized two years before, and 
sent over to work in the galleys. The fierce revenge 
taken by their nation forced him to ask that they 
should be sent back. Frontenac had the tact to 
make a firm friend of their chief on the passage, and 
the friendship was afterward of service to him. 

The first news he received on his arrival was that 
of the massacre at Montreal, the loss of Fort Fron- 
tenac, and the abandonment of Niagara. On the 
other hand, the English posts at Hudson Bay had 
been attacked by two brothers of the Le Moyne 



82 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1689. 

family, Sainte Helene and Iberville, and all but one 
had been taken. At the same time, the Abenaquis 
in Maine had been making havoc among English 
settlements. Their first attack was on Dover, or 
Cocheco, in New Hampshire, in June, and was in 
satisfaction of revenge that had been nursed for 
thirteen years. 

In 1676, near the close of King Philip's War, 
Major Waldron, of the Dover militia, had treacher- 
ously seized over two hundred Indians with whom 
he had just made peace, hanged several, and sold 
the rest into slavery. In retaliation, the Indians 
selected Dover for the first assault. They sent two 
squaws to Waldron's house, who begged for a 
night's lodging, and were allowed to sleep on the 
floor. In the night they opened the gates, and the 
warriors rushed in. Waldron, who was eighty years 
old, seized his sword, with the exclamation, " What 
now? what now?" and defended himself bravely, 
till he was felled by the blow of a hatchet. Then 
they placed him in a chair, and cried, " Judge 
Indians now ! Judge Indians now ! " Some who 
were in debt to him cut great gashes in his breast 
with their knives, exclaiming, " So I cross out my 
account ! " The old man fainted under the tortures, 
and was killed with his own sword. 

At Saco several men were killed in July by 



1689.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. Z-^ 

Indians, who in August attacked Fort Pemaquid, 
garrisoned by fifteen men under Captain Weems. 
The one hundred assailants were all converted Ind- 
ians, and were accompanied by their priest, a Jesuit 
named Thury. The fort surrendered the second 
day on condition of life and liberty to the garrison, 
a promise which was kept to Weems and a few 
others, while the rest were killed as they were leav- 
ing the fort, or carried away prisoners. Father 
Thury said it was due to his exhortations that the 
Indians refrained from torturing the prisoners, and 
" immediately killed those whom they wished to 
kill." These and other similar attacks broke up 
the settlements in Maine east of Casco Bay. 

Frontenac now planned three expeditions against 
the English colonies — one from Montreal to devas- 
tate New York, one from Three Rivers to destroy 
the New Hampshire towns, and one from Quebec 
to make a descent on Maine. 

The Montreal party of two hundred and ten was 
about half Frenchmen, bush-rangers largely, and the 
other half-converted Iroquois who had settled near 
Montreal. They were reluctant allies against their 
heathen kindred, but more than willing to fight the 
English. The party was led by Mantet and Sainte 
Hel^ne, and accompanied by Iberville. 

They marched in the dead of winter through the 



84 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

forests and up the frozen streams, drawing their 
provisions on sledges. When they reached Lake 
Champlain, the Indians asked where they were go- 
ing. "To Albany. " The Indians laughed at the 
idea of attempting Albany with such a force, and 
advised a descent on Schenectady, or Corlaer, as 
the French called it, from Anthony Van Curler, its 
founder. The leaders assented, and after a slow 
and painful march, the party reached the Mohawk 
River near the village. 

There were dissensions in New York at this time 
between the followers of Leisler and the opposing 
party, and Schenectady was divided by the feud. 
The chief magistrate, John Alexander Glen, often 
called Captain Sander, and Lieutenant Talmage, 
who was in command of a small party of Connecti- 
cut militia at the block-house, were opposed to Leis- 
ler, whom most of the citizens of Schenectady fa- 
vored. For this reason they laughed at the magis- 
trate and the lieutenant, who urged them to guard 
against surprise and be prepared for defence. They 
left the gates of the city open, and set up images of 
snow for sentinels. 

The French and Indians entered the village about 
eleven o'clock on the night of Feb. 8th, 1690, and 
formed a line within the palisades and around the 
houses, completely enclosing them. Then they raised 



1690. J KING IVILLIAAI'S WAR. 85 

the war-whoop, the first intimation of their presence 
to the villagers. The doors of the houses were bat- 
tered down, and the wretched inhabitants brained 
at once with the tomahawk, or reserved for a more 
horrible fate. Sixty were killed, of whom twelve 
were children. Some fled through the eastern gate 
toward Albany and found shelter, many of them 
with limbs frozen by exposure to the excessive cold. 

The next day a party went to the house of the 
magistrate. Glen, across the river. He was prepared 
for defence ; but they assured him they had orders 
not to harm him or any one belonging to him. He 
had several times saved French captives by his influ- 
ence with the Iroquois, and the officers in return for 
this service allowed him to take all his relatives 
from among the prisoners. He naturally found a 
great many — so many as to make the surly savages 
grumble at the great extent of his family connec- 
tion. 

The village was fired, and not more than half a 
dozen of the eighty houses escaped the flames. 
Twenty-seven prisoners were carried away, as well 
as a large number of horses and other plunder ; and 
not more than one sixth of the inhabitants of Sche- 
nectady remained unhurt. About thirty Mohawks 
in the town were carefully spared by the French, 
who were fully awake to the importance of appeas- 



86 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

ing the Five Nations and cultivating their friend- 
ship. 

The party from Three Rivers, numbering about 
fifty, fell upon the town of Salmon Falls, on the 
Piscataqua, March 27th. It had two forts, but nei- 
ther had placed sentinels. The scenes of the Sche- 
nectady massacre were re-enacted ; thirty-four were 
killed, and over fifty taken, some of whom were tor- 
tured on the retreat. The French were pursued by 
a small party from Piscataqua, and riter a skirmish 
at a bridge over Wooster River, in which the pursu- 
ers lost a few men, went on to join the war-party 
from Quebec. 

This party, under an officer named Portneuf, 
numbered nearly five hundred, after being joined by 
some Indians under St. Castin and the men from 
Three Rivers. They were on their way to the settle- 
ment at Casco Bay, near the present city of Portland. 
The place was defended by a fort and four block- 
houses, and had about one hundred defenders under 
the command of Sylvanus Davis. Thirty of his 
men went out against the enemy, contrary to his 
orders, and all but four lost their lives. After a 
siege of four days. Fort Loyal surrendered on condi- 
tion of liberty to the garrison and a guard to the 
nearest English town — all of which, according to the 
account of Captain Davis, was solemnly promised 



1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 87 

and sworn by the French leader. Nevertheless, 
they were given to the Indians as soon as they had 
laid down their arms and left the fort ; and when 
they protested were told they deserved no quarter, 
because they were rebels against their rightful king, 
James 11. The Indians murdered some, and carried 
away the rest. The fort and town were burned, 
and the dead left unburied. 

These successes of the French carried courage and 
enthusiasm to Canada, and aroused the English colo- 
nies to action. It was resolved, at a congress held 
in New York in May, that a land force should march 
on Montreal, while a fleet should be sent from Bos- 
ton to capture Quebec. 

Massachusetts had just fitted out seven vessels 
and seven or eight hundred men, and placed them 
under the command of Sir William Phips, to attack 
Port Royal in Acadia. It was a harbor for French 
vessels which roamed the waters and preyed on New 
England commerce, and a place of stores whence 
the Indians drew their supplies of arms and ammu- 
nition to carry on the border warfare. 

Sir William Phips, at this time about forty years 
old, had had an adventurous career. Belonging to 
a family of twenty-six children reared in poverty 
and ignorance in the woods of Maine, he learned to 
read and write after he became a man. His boy- 



88 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1683. 

hood was spent in tending sheep ; he then became 
apprentice to a ship-carpenter, in whose service he 
spent four years. When he was twenty-two he went 
to Boston and married a widow older than himself. 
She had some property, and set him up in business ; 
but he was not prosperous, and soon lost all his wife's 
capital. He was not discouraged, but began to 
follow the sea, and often told his wife that she should 
yet live in a '* fair brick house in the Green Lane of 
Boston." The Green Lane was in the northern 
part of the city, and was occupied by well-to-do 
citizens. In 1683, Phips heard of a Spanish ship 
which had been wrecked near the Bahama Islands 
and was supposed to have carried down with it a 
great deal of gold and silver. He thought a swift 
and easy way to the possession of the ** fair brick 
house" would be to bring up some of this treasure 
from the sea, and accordingly went there in a small 
vessel, but did not get enough to pay for his outlay. 
But while he was on this voyage he heard of another 
Spanish galleon which had been wrecked fifty years 
before somewhere on the coast of the West Indies. 
There was a tradition that this ship carried down a 
vast amount of treasure, but no attempt had been 
made to recover it. Undiscouraged by his first fail- 
ure, he went to England, and succeeded in getting 
an audience of the King, James II., who was so much 



1684.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 89 

impressed by the scheme that he appointed Phips 
captain of a ship called thQ Rose Airier, with eighteen 
guns and ninety-five men. Two years were spent 
in the West Indies, searching for the wreck without 
success. The sailors were discouraged, organized a 
mutiny, and arming themselves with cutlasses, came 
to the captain and demanded that he should turn 
pirate. Phips, as brave as he was persevering, fell 
upon the leaders and used his fists so vigorously 
that he knocked down several of them and awed the 
rest into submission. It was not long before they 
made another attempt ; and though he succeeded 
in quelling the second mutiny also, it would have 
been dangerous to keep such a crew much longer on 
the sea ; the ship was old and leaky, and the cap- 
tain thought best to go back to England. But be- 
fore he went he was so fortunate as to find an old 
man who remembered the shipwreck, and told him 
it was very near Porto Plata, on the northern coast 
of Santo Domingo, or Hispaniola, as it was then 
called. 

Phips returned to England to get a better vessel 
and crew. The King had lost all confidence in the 
scheme and would have nothing more to do with it ; 
but the Duke of Albemarle and some other noble^ 
men fitted out a ship for him, and he sailed for Porto 
Plata. Here he anchored, and built a large boat to 



90 AYAV nVlUJM'S irjJ^. [1686* 

go nearer the reef where the wreck was said to have 
taken place than the ship could venture. Taking 
some skilful Indian divers in the boat* a part of the 
crew went to the spot and examined the waters, but 
could see nothing. As they were about giving up 
the search, one of the sailors noticed through the 
clear water a beautiful feather\* seaweed growing 
from a rock at the bottom. He told one of the 
dix^ers to bring it up to him ; and when the diver 
came up with the plant he said he saw some great 
cannon at the bottom. This w^as enough. The gal- 
leon was found. The divers were sent down, and 
the first one that rose brought a kimp of silver worth 
nearly two hundred pounds. The sailors rowed to 
the ship, and showed their prise to the captain. 
The crew all went to work, and brought up gold and 
sjl\*er and precious stones, bullion, coin, cups, and 
sacramental plate — ^to the value of three hundred 
thousand pounds. It is said that a captain who \\*as 
with Phips lost his reason at the sight of such an 
amount of treasure. 

The share of Captain Phips amounted to only six- 
teen thousand pounds. But this was enough to en- 
able him to live in style in Boston in those daj-s. 
The Duke of Albemarle sent Mrs. Phips a gold cup 
valued at a thousand pounds, and the King con- 
ferred upon Phips the honor of knighthood. 



1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR, 91 

To Sir William Phips, then, who had become a 
man of importance in the colony, was entrusted the 
command of the expedition against Acadia, and he 
appeared off Port Royal on the 19th of May. The 
fort was in command of Meneval, the French Gov- 
ernor, who summoned the inhabitants b>' firing a 
cannon ; but only three of them came. 

The next day Phips entered the harbor and sum- 
moned the commandant to surrender. Meneval sent 
Petit, a priest, to negotiate ; and it was agreed that 
the troops, consisting of seventy men, should be 
sent to Quebec or to France, that private property 
should be respected, that the inhabitants be left in 
peaceable possession of their lands and the free exer- 
cise of their religion, and that the church should not 
be injured. 

While Meneval was on board the flag-ship arr^^r.g- 
ing the terms, some of the soldiers and citizens of 
Port Royal broke into a storehouse and carried cfi 
a quantity' of goods, which they hid in the woods : 
and Phips made this a pretext for violatir.:; ^'1, cr 
nearly all, the terms of the capitulation . . : al- 
lowed his soldiers to break into the church, ci:: i : r. 
the cross, and shatter the cmrr';nts of the al:ar. 
The houses of the priests wer . \ _ dered ; and they, 
together with Meneval and fifty-nine of the soldiers, 
were carried to Boston and imprisoned. 



93 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

The inhabitants were called together and asked to 
take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary ; 
most of them did so, and were left unmolested ; but 
a few refused, and their houses were pillaged. 
Phips organized a temporary government, with a 
sergeant of the garrison at the head of it, and a 
council of six chosen from among the inhabitants. 
They were instructed to govern the place for the 
King of England, and to allow liberty in matters of 
religion. 

Meneval gave his money and personal effects to 
Phips for safe keeping ; but when he wanted them 
returned, Phips refused, and Meneval petitioned the 
Governor and Council at Boston to order Phips to 
restore them. They did so, but Phips paid no at- 
tention to it. Then Governor Bradstreet wrote to 
him, commanding him to comply immediately with 
the order, and Phips reluctantly gave up some of 
the money and some of the poorest articles of cloth- 
ing, but kept the greater part of the articles, which 
Meneval thus enumerated : " Six silver spoons, six 
silver forks, one silver cup in the shape of a gondola, 
a pair of pistols, three new wigs, a gray vest, four 
pair of silk garters, two dozen shirts, six vests of 
dimity, four night-caps with lace edging, all my 
table-service of fine tin, all my table linen," etc. 

Before returning to Boston, Phips sent Captain 



T690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 93 

Alden to take La Heve and Chedabucto. He car- 
ried to Boston twenty-one pieces of ordnance, and a 
sum of money belonging to the King, besides the 
plunder taken from private individuals. Alden, who 
had captured the two places without much trouble, 
brought a large quantity of goods belonging to the 
fishing company. 

A few days after their departure, a French ship, 
the Union, arrived at Port Royal with goods, provis- 
ions, arms, ammunition, and presents for the Ind- 
ians, to ensure their continued loyalty to France. 
On board were some recruits for the garrison, an 
officer of engineers named Saccardie, and Meneval's 
brother, Villebon, who had been in Acadia before, 
and now came to lead the Indians against the Eng- 
lish. When he found what had befallen the settle- 
ments of Acadia, Villebon determined to go to the 
River St. John, and occupy the fort at Gemseg, and 
accordingly crossed over, leaving orders for the 
Union to follow. 

No sooner had he gone than two pirate ships ap- 
peared. Finding the town undefended, the crews 
landed, seized all they could carry away, and burned 
sixteen houses. They hanged two men, and taking 
the Union and her cargo, sailed off with Perrot, a 
trader, and Saccardie the engineer, after having tor- 
tured Perrot to make him tell where he had hidden his 



94 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

money. When Villebon learned of the disaster, he 
returned to Fort Gemseg, and told the Indians that 
the English had stolen their presents, but that he 
was going to France to get them much nicer ones, 
and exhorted them to be faithful to the French, to 
keep up the war, and to be ready to go with him 
the following spring. He then went to Quebec to 
sail for France. 

When Phips returned to Boston, preparations for 
an attack on Canada were already far advanced. 
Aid was sought from England ; but everything there 
was concentrated on the struggle in Ireland with the 
adherents of James XL, and the colonists were left 
to fight it out alone. The plan was, to march a 
land force under General Winthrop against Mont- 
real, while a fleet was to sail from Boston for the 
capture of Quebec. Thirty-four ships, the largest 
of which carried forty-four guns, were made ready 
and manned with two thousand two hundred sailors 
and militia, und.r the command of Major John 
Walley. The success of Phips in Acadia led to his 
appointment as commander of the expedition. 

The force destined for Montreal set out from 
Albany much reduced by sickness and the with- 
drawal of the militia of the eastern colonies, made 
necessary by attacks on the border settlements. 
Bands of Indians from eastern New York gathered 



1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 95 

at Albany to join the expedition, and those of the 
west were to be in readiness on Lake Champlain. 
But before they were prepared, the season was far 
advanced ; the work of making canoes was stopped 
by the want of birch-bark, and it was too late in the 
season for elm-bark to be made available. The ad- 
herents of the two factions in New York politics 
quarrelled with each other and with the Connecticut 
soldiers ; the supplies were insufficient ; and the 
Indians of the western tribes failed to keep their 
engagement. 

Captain John Schuyler was in advance with less 
than two hundred men, pushing on down the lake ; 
but Winthrop, finding it impossible to do anything 
wdth the disorderly forces of the main body, 
marched them back to Albany. 

Frontenac had prepared for the expected attack 
by strengthening the stockade forts along the Upper 
St. Lawrence, and holding a great council with the 
Indians who came down from the Upper Lakes to 
trade. He was now seventy years old ; but, bran- 
dishing a tomahawk about his head, he danced the 
war-dance and sang the war-song, arousing the Ind- 
ians to the highest pitch of excitement and enthusi- 
asm. 

Schuyler arrived just after Frontenac had gone to 
protect the other settlements. The Indians, who 



gS KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [i6go. 

formed the greater part of his band, refused to 
attack the fort ; and so the extent of the operations 
was the destruction of houses, harvests, and cattle, 
and the killing or capture of twenty-five settlers. 
Thus the land expedition of the English was worse 
than a failure. It accomplished nothing ; it stained 
their record by the use of the Indian method of at- 
tack on peaceful settlers ; and it tended to bring 
them into contempt with their savage allies. 

After a long delay, the fleet under Sir William 
Phips was prepared to sail from Boston. The 
Aveather was unfavorable, the ocean voyage was 
long, and Phips had no pilots acquainted with the 
St. Lawrence. So slow was the progress of the fleet 
that the advantage of surprise was lost. Two small 
French vessels were captured on the way ; and from 
information obtained from them in regard to the 
state of the defences of Quebec, Phips anticipated a 
victory as easy as that at Port Royal. 

But Frontenac had been employed during the 
summer in building palisades on the undefended side 
of the city ; and Major Prevost, who commanded in 
Quebec during his absence in Montreal, receiving 
timely warning of the departure of the fleet from 
Boston, sent word to Montreal, and hastened to 
improve the defences of the city ; the gates were 
barricaded, cannon mounted, palisades and moats 



1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 97 

placed wherever they were needed, and batteries 
posted in the lower part of the town near the river. 
Frontenac went down the river in a canoe as soon 
as he heard of the danger to his capital, leaving 
orders for all the forces at Montreal and intervening 
points to gather at Quebec. 

On the 5th of October the fleet arrived before 
Quebec, and Phips demanded a surrender. The 
messenger was blindfolded and led by two officers 
in a roundabout course, followed by a tumultuous 
and jeering mob. When the bandage was taken 
from his eyes, he found himself in the presence of 
the Governor and his superior officers. He delivered 
his letter to the Governor and an interpreter trans- 
lated it into French. The letter said : 

" The war between the crowns of England and 
France doth not only sufficiently warrant, but the 
destruction made by the French and Indians, under 
your command and encouragement, upon the per- 
sons and estates of their Majesties' subjects of New 
England, without provocation on their part, hath 
put them under the necessity of this expedition for 
their own security and satisfaction. And although 
the cruelties and barbarities used against them by 
the French and Indians might, upon the present 
opportunity, prompt unto a severe revenge, yet, 
being desirous to avoid all inhumane and unchris- 



98 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

tian-like actions, and to prevent shedding of blood 
as much as may be, 

" I, the aforesaid William Phips, Knight, do here- 
by, in the name and in the behalf of their most 
excellent Majesties, William and Mary, King and 
Queen of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, 
Defenders of the Faith, and by order of their said 
Majesties' government of the Massachusetts-colony 
in New England, demand a present surrender of your 
forts and castles, undemolished, and the King's and 
other stores, unimbezzled, with a seasonable delivery 
of all captives, together with a surrender of all your 
persons and estates to my dispose : upon the doing 
whereof you may expect mercy from me, as a Chris- 
tian, according to what shall be found for their Maj- 
esties' service and the subjects' security. Which 
if you refuse forthwith to do, I am come provided, 
and am resolved, by the help of God, in whom I 
trust, by force of arms to revenge all wrongs and in- 
juries offered, and bring you under subjection to the 
crown of England, and when too late make you wish 
you had accepted of the favour tendered. 

" Your answer positive in an hour, returned by 
your own trumpet, with the return of mine, is re- 
quired upon the peril that will ensue." 

When the reading of the letter was finished, the 
messenger reminded Frontenac that it was ten 



1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 99 

o'clock, and his answer must be given by eleven. 
The French officers exclaimed at the impudence of 
the demand, and some of them said Frontenac 
ought to hang the messenger of such a pirate as 
Phips had shown himself to be. Frontenac told the 
messenger that he need not wait so long for his 
answer ; that he did not acknowledge William of 
Orange as King of England, knowing no King of 
England but King James ; that the King of France 
was about to restore King James to his throne ; and 
that his subjects in Canada were prepared to make 
war on the English colonists, who were rebels 
against their lawful sovereign. He alluded to the 
violation by Phips of his agreement at Port Royal, 
and said, " I will answer your master only by the 
mouths of my cannon, and he shall learn that I am 
not to be summoned in this way to surrender." 

The officer was led back blindfolded, as he had 
come, and when Frontenac's answer was received, 
Phips held a council, at which it was decided to 
make a combined attack by land and sea. Major 
Walley, with a force of militia, was to be landed 
above the St. Charles at Beauport, to ford the river, 
and climb to the rear of the town by the heights of 
St. Genevieve. Several of the smaller vessels were 
to support the land soldiers by ascending the St. 
Charles with provisions and ammunition, and assist 



lOO KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

in the attack with their guns. Then the larger 
vessels were to assail the city from the St. Lawrence 
side, and land a part of the troops to storm the de- 
fences. 

Two days passed before it seemed best to the 
English to begin carrying out the plan. While they 
were waiting, the forces which Frontenac had or- 
dered from Montreal arrived, under the command of 
Calli^res, so that the number of troops reached about 
three thousand. The city was full, the inhabitants 
of the Lower Town having taken shelter in the con- 
vent, the hospital, and the seminary of the Upper 
Town. Provisions were low, and there was danger 
of famine if the siege should be long continued. 
Masses were constantly offered, a picture of the 
Holy Family was hung on the cathedral spire, and 
the nuns kept up an unbroken stream of prayer to 
the Virgin and all the saints for the deliverance of 
the city. 

At length on the 8th, at noon, boats were sent 
out to Beauport, below the St. Charles, carrying 
Major Walley with about twelve hundred men. 
Having landed, they began their march, but had 
not gone far when they were assailed from the woods 
and thickets by a band of French and Indians under 
Sainte Helene. Walley's men charged bravely on 
them, and they retreated, but kept up a continual 



1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. lOi 

fire from behind the rocks and trees as they went, 
sending confusion into the ranks of the English. 
WaJley drew his forces together and encamped, in 
expectation of the ships which were to support him. 

Without waiting till Walley was in full readiness 
to climb the heights in the rear and co-operate with 
the attack from the fleet, Phips rushed on with his 
larger ships and drew them up before the town. He 
was greeted by a shot from the Chateau St. Louis, 
and at once opened with all his cannon. A rapid 
firing ensued on both sides, which was kept up until 
nightfall. Comparatively little damage was done 
by the English ; their guns were not charged heavily 
enough with powder to give the balls much effect, 
and their gunnery was poor. Many of the balls 
struck the wall of rock, and many of those that 
reached the town had spent their force and failed to 
pierce the walls. The fire from the town was more 
effective ; but Phips only waited till morning to 
renew the attack. 

The next day the troops in the town were reen- 
forced by the detachment which had been sent out 
against Walley's party ; and under the direction of 
Sainte Helene the guns of the batteries in the 
Lower Town were aimed against the fleet with good 
effect. All the ships were before the town ; for 
those that should have gone to the aid of Walley 



I02 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

were afraid to expose themselves to the danger ; 
and there was no central command strong enough 
to enforce obedience — if, indeed, anything was 
thought of at the head of the fleet except the busi- 
ness immediately in hand. A few pieces of cannon 
and a little powder and food were sent to the shore, 
but Walley received no other assistance. 

The ships were at length disabled by the fire 
and were drawn off beyond the reach of the guns 
of the town. The attack by water had proved a 
miserable failure ; and Walley was too poorly sup- 
ported to effect anything by land. On the morn- 
ing of the loth, the day after the repulse of the 
fleet, he went to consult with Sir William Phips. 
During his absence his men advanced to cross the 
St. Charles and make an attack, but were met by 
a party under Sainte Helene and driven back with 
loss. Walley returned with orders to take them to 
the fleet, and boats were sent in the night, in which 
they were to embark the following night. 

During the nth, another skirmish took place, 
with about the same result. Walley's troops fought 
courageously, but were too poorly disciplined to 
fight with advantage ; while the French and Indians 
fired from behind rocks and trees and farm-houses. 
Walley withdrew, and as soon as darkness came on 
embarked his troops in the boats and joined the 



1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 103 

fleet. As the ships were disabled, and the stock of 
ammunition low, the undertaking was now aban- 
doned, and the fleet dropped down below the Island 
of Orleans, where it stopped for repairs. After an 
exchange of prisoners, the vessels made their way 
slowly homeward. 

While Phips was on his way down the river, three 
ships arrived from France bringing money and stores 
to Quebec, and ran up the Saguenay. Phips at- 
tempted to capture them, but failed. He reached 
Boston in five or six weeks ; some of his vessels were 
more than three months on the way, and several — 
as many as nine, by some accounts — were wrecked. 

This miserable outcome of an expedition from 
which so much had been hoped, carried dismay and 
foreboding to the New England colonies. In Que- 
bec there was great rejoicing when the fleet dis- 
appeared down the river, marred only by the fear 
that the ships from France might be surprised on 
the way and captured. When they arrived m safety, 
the general joy knew no bounds. If the siege had 
been prolonged, the city would have suffered from 
famine and perhaps been forced at last to surrender ; 
for the warning had not been long enough to give 
time for providing food for the great number that 
were gathered in the capital, and the supplies from 
France had not arrived. 



I04 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. 

A procession was formed, which carried the image 
of the Virgin to every church and chapel in turn, 
with appropriate ceremonies ; Te Deiiin was sung in 
the cathedral ; and the banner bearing the cross of St. 
George, which had waved at the mast-head of Phips's 
vessel, and was shot away by one of Sainte Helene's 
cannon, was picked up from the river where it had 
fallen, and carried to the cathedral, where it hung 
for years. Frontenac sent the news to France, 
urging the Government at the same time to provide 
troops for the complete conquest of New York and 
New England ; and a medal in honor of the victory 
was struck in Paris. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 

Attacks on Wells and York — Fort Built at Pemaquid — Attempt to 
take it — Plan to Attack Quebec — Proposed Exchange of Prisoners 
— Oyster River Assailed — Schuyler at La Prairie — Invasion of the 
Mohawk Country — Treachery of Chubb at Pemaquid — Destruction 
of the Fort — Church and Hathorn on the St. John — Haverhill — 
French Plan for the Capture of Boston — Iberville in Newfound- 
land and at Hudson Bay — Frontenac among the Iroquois — The 
Peace of Ryswick — Dectths of Frontenac and Villebon. 

The English made no attempt to secure their 
conquest in Acadia, and Villebon was appointed 
Governor by the French Government and instructed 
to lavish presents on the Indians and keep them and 
the French constantly engaged in Vv^ar. All supplies 
would be sent from France, so that none of the men 
need be kept at home for the cultivation of the soil. 

The vessel which took Villebon to Acadia cap- 
tured Colonel Edward Tyng, who had been sent from 
Massachusetts as Governor of Port Royal, and John 
Nelson, who was going with him. Nelson inherited 
a claim to Acadia, from his uncle, Sir Thomas Tem- 
ple, to whom Cromwell had made a large grant, and 
he was well acquainted with the country and the 



lo6 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1692. 

language of the Indians. He and Tyng were taken 
to Quebec. 

Villebon took possession of Port Royal without 
opposition, and administered to the colonists the 
oath of allegiance to the sovereign of France. He 
established himself at Fort Gemseg on the St. John, 
and set about the work of inciting the Indians to 
war. A chief named Moxus had already attacked 
Wells with two hundred Indians, and had been re- 
pelled by the garrison under Captain Converse. 
Seconded by the priest Thury, Villebon persuaded 
the Indians to form a great war-party, though some 
who had signed a truce with the English were re- 
luctant. 

They set out in January, 1692, and marched a 
month over icy streams and through bare forests to 
southwestern Maine. On the night of Feb. 4th, they 
encamped at the foot of Mount Agamenticus, and 
in the morning moved cautiously to the village 
of York. They caught a boy cutting wood in a 
forest, forced information from him, murdered him, 
and pushed on. Dividing into two parties, they 
began their work at a signal. There were five forti- 
fied houses, having projecting upper stories with 
loop-holes for guns. One was taken at the first as- 
sault. The unprotected dwellings were attacked, 
and all their inmates who did not escape to the for- 



1692.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 107 

tified houses were slain or taken captive. The 
minister, Mr. Dummer, was shot at his own door as 
he was about to mount his horse to visit a parish- 
ioner. After unsuccessfully attacking the other four 
fortified houses, the party withdrew with eighty 
prisoners, having killed nearly a hundred. 

In June of the same year, an attack on Wells, by 
about four hundred Indians, was a complete failure. 
The Indians attempted to fire some ships lying in 
the river, by means of a burning raft, but it rail 
aground. The French ofificers tried to induce them 
to make a regular assault on the fort ; but they 
carried it on in their own fashion, with a tremen- 
dous amount of noise and desultory firing. The men 
in the fort held out bravely ; the women loaded 
their guns, and some fired ; Converse answered defi- 
antly every summons to surrender ; and the Indians 
were glad to draw off with one prisoner, after burn- 
ing the church and the deserted houses. Villebon 
consoled some who lived near his fort with a pris- 
oner to burn, an Indian ally of the English, taken 
near the St. John. 

During the summer. Sir William Phips, now Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, having authority to rebuild 
the fort at Pemaquid, set out with Benjamin 
Church, noted for success in Indian wars, and one 
hundred v/orkmen. On the way they buried the 



I08 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1692. 

dead left at Casco in 1690, and carried the cannon 
of Fort Loyal with them. Phips laid the founda- 
tions for a strong fortress of stone, and left the men 
to finish it. When done, it was the best fort the 
English had in America ; the front wall was twenty- 
two feet high, and the great round tower at the 
southwestern corner twenty-nine feet high. Eigh- 
teen guns were mounted, and sixty men placed in it 
as a garrison. Phips named it Fort William Henry. 

Madockawando, the Indian father-in-law of the 
Baron de St. Castin, had gone to Quebec to carry 
to Frontenac the news of the building of this fort, 
and Frontenac resolved to drive the English away 
at once before it should be completed. He had two 
ships of war, and arranged that they should sail with 
about four hundred men, take in as many more as 
they could get at Villebon's fort and Pentagoet, and 
then capture Pemaquid and destroy the settlements 
along the coast of the present States of Maine and 
New Hampshire. 

John Nelson was still a prisoner in Quebec when 
Madockawando came with his intelligence, but was 
treated as a guest by Frontenac, and had apart- 
ments at the Chateau St. Louis. He discovered 
that an expedition was on foot, and, through his 
knowledge of the Indian language spoken by the 
chief, and in other ways, he managed to get some 



1693.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR, 109 

information as to the details. He bribed two 
French soldiers to desert, and carry a letter to Bos- 
ton. A ship of war was at once sent from Boston 
to the defence of Pemaquid, which was not yet 
finished, and when the French vessels arrived, and 
found the place thus defended, they gave up the 
enterprise without attempting to strike a blow. 
Iberville, who commanded the expedition, was cen- 
sured severely by Frontenac, and the Indians were 
so indignant that they threatened to break their 
alliance with the French. 

The colonists, harassed continually by the Ind- 
ians, their border settlements broken up, their har- 
vests and cattle destroyed by these sly and faithless 
hordes, whom no treaties could hold, made repeated 
applications to England for help ; and at length 
a plan was formed. A fleet under Sir Francis 
Wheeler was to be sent to Martinique, and after 
service there was to go to Boston, take on as many 
troops as the colonies should have been able to raise, 
and proceed to Quebec ; the troops to be under the 
command of Sir William Phips. But the attack on 
Martinique was a failure. Six hundred of the men 
were killed, and three hundred taken prisoners. 
Half of the sailors and three fourths of the soldiers 
died of yellow fever before the fleet reached Bos- 
ton, and the epidemic was carried into the city. 



no CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1693. 

The design of an attack on Quebec was then neces- 
sarily abandoned. 

The English made a treaty with the eastern Ind- 
ians, supposing that all the tribes were represent- 
ed ; but Villebon, who had built a fort on the St. 
John nearly opposite the site of Fredericton, Fort 
Naxouat, took measures to stir them up to break 
the treaty. Taxus, a chief friendly to the French, 
was honored and feasted at the fort, and Villebon 
gave him his best coat. He sent presents and am- 
munition to be distributed among the various tribes ; 
and, what was of vastly greater importance to the 
French cause, he set on the Jesuits — Vincent Bigot 
on the Kennebec and Pierre Thury on the Penob- 
scot — to incite their converts to the work. 

Their plans were nearly defeated by tidings that 
the English were going to exchange prisoners at 
Pemaquid, according to the treaty ; for the French 
had told them the English were trying to entrap 
them. Had it not been for the cunning of Thury, 
the Indians, or a large part of them, would have 
gone to their homes from the Penobscot, where they 
had been gathered by St. Castin and Villieu who 
had been appointed to lead them. But Thury pri- 
vately told those chiefs who had not been present at 
the conference with the English, that Madocka- 
v/ando and the others had taken altogether too much 



1 694-] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. iii 

on themselves, and assumed too much importance 
in making a treaty without their concurrence. This 
was enough ; their jealousy was aroused, they were 
all for war, and Madockawando and some of his 
followers who still held out were at length persuad- 
ed, at a dog-feast given by Villieu, by means of the 
presents of the French and the jeers of their savage 
companions. 

About two hundred and fifty of them set out in 
canoes for Piscataqua. At Pemaquid, Villieu, dis- 
guised as an Indian, landed with a few savages and 
went to the fort, carrying some furs to trade to the 
soldiers. Leaving the Indians to make the bargain, 
he walked away unobserved, studied the plan of the 
fort, and made a drawing of it. 

At the village of Oyster River, now Durham, in 
New Hampshire, the Indians took five of the twelve 
fortified houses ; three families escaped, but two 
were slaughtered. The seven other houses were 
resolutely defended. The owner of one of these, 
Thomas Bickford, placed his family in a boat and 
sent them down the stream ; then he went back to 
his house, and by keeping up a constant firing, now 
from one point and now from another, shouting 
orders as if to his garrison, and giving the assailants 
glimpses of him in different clothing at different 
parts of the house, he defended the place success- 



112 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1691. 

fully alone, and saved his house and his whole fam- 
ily. About one hundred persons were killed, and 
twenty-seven carried away. After mass had been 
said by Thury, the Indians took to their canoes. 
Some of them wanted to go home ; but Taxus with 
a large party remained to work what havoc they 
could on neighboring settlements. They divided 
into small bands, and killed some of the inhabitants 
of Groton, York, Kittery, and other places. Villieu 
on his return set out for Quebec to warn the Gov- 
ernor of a rumored expedition against that city, tak- 
ing with him some Indians, and a string of thirteen 
English scalps, which were presented to Frontenac. 
During these years the Iroquois, incited by the 
New York colonists, went down the St. Lawrence 
and fell upon the least protected settlements from 
time to time, killing, burning, and capturing. A 
large party of them, encamped near the mouth of 
the Ottawa, sallied out in bands, and kept the fron- 
tier in terror. Over one hundred men were marched 
against them under Vaudreuil, and routed a band of 
about forty near Repentigny ; and when men and 
supplies arrived from France, a large force was sent 
against them, and their camp was broken up. After 
this defeat, they refused to keep up hostilities un- 
aided by the English, and an expedition was then 
organized under Major Peter Schuyler. 



1 69 1.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. IT3 

About two hundred and fifty men were gathered 
at Albany, half of them Indians. They descended 
Lake Champlain and the Richelieu in canoes, and 
debarked a few miles above Fort Chambly, whence 
they marched to attack the French at La Prairie, 
opposite Montreal. Callieres, who was now Gov- 
ernor of Montreal, had been warned, and had 
gone over to La Prairie with seven hundred men, 
but he was too ill to command during the attack, 
which took place early in the morning of the nth of 
August. The camp was broken up, the soldiers 
driven into the fort, and great loss inflicted on the 
French, and then Schuyler drew off his men, destroy- 
ing the growing crops as he went. 

On the way back he was met by a force of French 
soldiers and Canadian Indians from Fort Chambly, 
under an officer named Valrenne, who, knowing of 
their attack on La Prairie, had come out to cut off 
their retreat. A fierce combat followed. Some of 
the Indians ran away ; but the English and the 
French fought with desperation, and the Mohawks 
remained steadfast. The force at La Prairie did not 
come up till the fighting was over. Schuyler's men 
at length succeeded in breaking through the centre 
of the enemy's rank, and then faced about and drove 
the French before them, forcing them to retreat. 
This is according to Schuyler's own account. The 



114 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1693. 

French also claimed the victory, and Valrenne was 
highly commended for having repelled the English. 

As the Iroquois continued their raids on the 
French, it was resolved to invade the Mohawk coun- 
try. A force of nearly seven hundred French and 
Indians set out from Montreal in the middle of 
January, 1693. After a weary march on snow-shoes 
they passed Schenectady early in February, went on 
to the first Mohawk castle, or town, and took a few 
prisoners without resistance. The second was taken 
quite as easily ; but at the third the Mohawks, who 
had gathered there for a feast and a war-dance, 
fought desperately, though they were at last over- 
powered. The invaders lost thirty men, and the 
Mohawks about the same number. The Canadian 
Indians had promised to put their captives to death 
in accordance with the command of Frontenac that 
no quarter should be given ; and as many of these 
Canadian Indians were converted Iroquois, it was 
hoped that such a proceeding on their part would 
preclude any reconciliation from ever taking place be- 
tween them and the Iroquois of New York. But they 
refused to keep their promise, and the French turned 
homeward with about three hundred prisoners. 

Warning had been given at Albany of the French 
invasion, by a young man who had been carried away 
from Schenectady at the burning of that town in 



1693.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 115 

1690. He was taken with the invading expedition, 
and ran away when he reached the neighborhood 
of his old home. Schuyler hastily gathered two 
hundred men and, joined by three or four hundred 
Indians, marched against the French. Some Mo- 
hawks caught up with the French, and told them 
Schuyler was coming to parley with them, as peace 
had been declared in Europe. The Canadian Indians 
said they would wait ; the French were distrustful, 
and anxious to push on their retreat. The Indians 
prevailed, and a fort was built of felled trees. 

When Schuyler came up, instead of seeking a par- 
ley, he began to build a similar fort, or rather his 
Indians did. The French attacked it, and were de- 
feated in three attempts ; then they quietly packed 
their baggage and moved off in the night during a 
heavy snow-storm. 

The Acadians were anxious that the fort at Pema- 
quid should be reduced. Not only was it a standing 
assertion of the English claim to disputed territory, 
but it kept them in constant fear of English influ- 
ence over their unstable allies. There was need also 
of protection for the fisheries and the fur-trade, 
which were seriously encroached upon by the Eng- 
lish, who offered much better terms to the Indians, 
both in Acadia and New York, than the French 
would, A pestilence had weakened the Indians of 



Ii6 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1696. 

the east, who were hungry and needy, and disposed 
to seek the best market for their furs, regardless of 
their friendships or preferences. 

They were still anxious to exchange prisoners 
with the English ; but when they were at last sum- 
moned to Pemaquid, they were told that nothing 
could be done till they should bring in all they had 
taken. As the English had not brought their men, 
they thought this was asking too much, and refused 
to treat further. In 1696 the Governor of Massa- 
chusetts sent them another summons. The Penob- 
scot tribe, the only one that answered, took five pris- 
oners to give for five of their tribe who had been 
taken by the English, and arrived at Pemaquid in 
February, 1696. The fort was commanded by Cap- 
tain Pascho Chubb, who received the Indians cor- 
dially, took back the prisoners they brought, and 
promised to give them some presents, and to send 
at once to Boston for their men, whom they desired 
in exchange. He then proposed a conference near 
the fort, where nine of his men were to meet nine of 
the Indians, all unarmed. The Indians accepted, 
but the liquor which was freely given them rendered 
them less wary than usual, and they did not notice 
a party of soldiers who had come out from the fort 
and stood ready for action at a short distance from 
the scene of the conference. Chubb's men carried 



1696.J CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 117 

concealed weapons, and at a signal fell upon the Ind- 
ians and killed several of them, of whom two were 
chiefs. The Indians fought savagely, and several of 
the soldiers also fell. According to French accounts, 
the Indians themselves were treacherously disposed, 
but none the less this treachery of Captain Chubb 
roused their hatred of the English to new fury, and 
did more service to the French cause than all the 
persuasions and presents which Villebon had lavished 
upon his reluctant allies. 

That officer had long been urging upon the Gov- 
ernment at Quebec the necessity of another attack 
upon Pemaquid ; and now that the folly of its com- 
mander had made the Indians eager to take revenge, 
preparations for the expedition were pushed on with 
vigor. In the summer of 1696 the Acadians and 
Indians assembled on the Penobscot and the St. 
John, and waited for two ships of war under Iber- 
ville and Bonaventure, which were to come from 
Quebec. While they were waiting, two British 
ships and a tender from Massachusetts were hang- 
ing about the coast, and the crews made several 
attempts to land. 

When at length the French ships, which had 
taken on board thirty Micmac Indians at Cape Bre- 
ton, arrived at the St. John, a sharp engagement 
took place. One of the English vessels, the New- 



Ii8 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1696. 

port, was captured ; but a fog enabled the Sorling 
and the tender to escape. The victorious vessels 
took on fifty more of the Micmacs and their priest, 
Father Simon, who were waiting at the mouth of 
the St. John, and proceeded to Pentagoet. Here 
were Villieu, and St. Castin, and the faithful Father 
Thury with twenty-five French soldiers and three 
hundred Abenaquis. Attended by a fleet of Abe- 
naqui canoes, the ships set out for Pemaquid, 
arriving there August 14th, 1696. 

The Abenaquis, under the lead of St. Castin, were 
put ashore for the land attack, while Iberville sum- 
moned Chubb to surrender. Chubb replied that he 
would not give up the fort, " if the sea were cov- 
ered with French ships, and the land with Indians." 
The attack began ; the French and Indian marks- 
men surrounded the fort, hiding in places where they 
were sheltered from its cannon, and kept up a con- 
stant fire. During the night the heavy guns were 
loaded, and the batteries made ready for use by the 
next afternoon. Before they were fired, St. Castin 
sent word to Chubb that if he and his soldiers held 
out until the fort should be carried by assault, they 
would get no quarter from the Indians, who remem- 
bered his former treachery. The letter was followed 
by five bomb-shells. 

Chubb immediately sounded a parley and offered 



1696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 119 

to surrender, on condition that he and all his men 
should be protected from the Indians, and sent to 
Boston to be exchanged for French and Indian pris- 
oners. Iberville sent them to an island in the bay, 
and despatched Villieu to take possession of the 
fort. One of the Indians whom Chubb had taken in 
February was found in irons in the fort, nearly dead 
with hunger and long confinement, and his country- 
men were so incensed that they would have made 
short work with the garrison if Iberville had not 
taken the precaution to send them away. 

The cannon of the fort were carried to the ships, 
and then the walls were blown up and the ruins 
fired. Notwithstanding the money and labor ex- 
pended on the fort, and its apparent strength, it 
was not well planned. There were no casemates, 
and a shower of bomb-shells would have made 
havoc with the garrison. When Chubb reached 
Boston he was thrown into prison on a charge of 
cowardice. He was liberated after several months 
and returned to his home in Andover ; but Indian 
vengeance was on his track, and the next year he 
and his wife were killed by a party of savages. 

Massachusetts had a force ready to send against 
the French, under Benjamin Church, when news 
of the capture of Pemaquid reached Boston, and 
Church started immediately with about five hundred 



I20 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1696. 

men, partly Indians, embarked in sloops and whal- 
ing vessels. After doing a small amount of damage 
at Penobscot, he went on to Chignccto at the head 
of the Bay of Fundy, where he landed and took pos- 
session of the place without meeting any resistance 
from the twenty or thirty men in the settlement. 
The inhabitants saved their lives by producing a 
certificate that they had taken the oath of allegiance 
to the British Crown ; but the soldiers plundered 
without restraint, and then burned the town. 

After this easy triumph, Church sailed for the St. 
John. An officer named Chevalier was stationed 
with a few soldiers at the mouth of the river, while 
Villebon's fort of Naxouat was situated farther up. 
These soldiers were taken by the Indians of Church's 
force, and Chevalier was killed. One of the captured 
Frenchmen told Church where to find the cannon of 
the old fort, which were buried in the sand, and the 
New Englanders dug them up and put them on 
board. On the way back to Boston they met three 
ships from Massachusetts, with two hundred men 
under Colonel liathorn. Hathorn deprived Church of 
li'.s command for having conducted the expedition 
in such a manner, and turned the force back to at- 
tack Fort Naxouat. But, warned by the arrival of 
Church, Villebon had been strengthening his fort 
and gathering into it a force of settlers and Indians. 



1696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 121 

The attack began on the i8th of October, and 
continued two days without success. During the 
night of the 19th the EngHsh quietly embarked and 
sailed away, having had eight men killed and sev- 
enteen wounded, while only three of the French 
suffered injury. This was the end of hostilities 
between the British and French colonists during 
what is known as King William's War. But the 
Indians kept up a petty warfare, ravaging the bor- 
ders of settlements and butchering defenceless fam- 
ilies. 

In the spring of 1697, a band of Indians reached 
the village of Haverhill, raised the war-cry, and 
began their horrid work. A man named Dustin was 
at work in the field, having with him his seven chil- 
dren, while his wife with the baby, one week old, 
and Mary Neff, a neighbor, were in the house. As 
soon as he became aware of the presence of the Ind- 
ians, Dustin started for the house ; but, seeing he 
was too late to be of any use there, he escaped to 
the woods with the children that were in the field 
with him. The savages killed the infant, set fire to 
the house, and took Hannah Dustin and Mary Neff 
to the woods with the other prisoners they had 
taken. Some of these were killed, and the rest were 
divided among the Indians, who separated and re- 
turned to their homes. 



122 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1697. 

The two women fell to the lot of two families, 
who, taking a leisurely march northward, were on 
their way to some Indian village. They encamped 
one night in the forest, on a small island in the Mer- 
rimack, near the present city of Concord, N. H. 
The Indians went to sleep about their camp-fire, 
after having counted on their beads the prayers 
taught them by some Jesuit enthusiast at their mis- 
sion station. Hannah Dustin had planned an escape 
and inspired Mary Neff and Samuel Leonardson, a 
boy captured at Worcester, to take part in it. 
When all the Indians were still, the three rose quiet- 
ly, took each a tomahawk, and at a signal all struck 
together on the heads of the sleeping savages. They 
struck with such nerve and skill that the two men 
of the party, two of the three squaws, and six of the 
seven children were instantly killed. A little boy 
was spared ; and he and a wounded squaw who ran 
with him into the woods were the only survivors. 
In the morning Hannah Dustin took the ten scalps, 
together with the gun and tomahawk of the Indian 
that killed her child, and a canoe carried her and 
her companions down the Merrimack to their home. 
They received a bounty of five pounds apiece for the 
scalps, and a present was sent to them by the Gov- 
ernor of Maryland. 

In the same year, 1697, a squadron of fifteen ships 



I697-J CZO:>^ OF KING WILLIAAV S WAR. 123 

was sent out from France, under the command of 
the Marquis de Nesmond. It was to go to New- 
foundland, capture any English ships that might be 
there, then sail to the Penobscot and take on board 
as many Indians and French soldiers as could be 
collected. It was expected that Canada would send 
fifteen hundred. This force was destined to take 
possession of Boston. One part was to land at Dor- 
chester and enter the town from the south by way 
of the Neck ; another was to land at Noddle's 
Island, take boats to Charlestown, capture it, and 
enter Boston from the north ; while still another 
portion of the forces was to land directly in the 
town near Long Wharf. Boston once taken, the 
forces were to march northward along the coast, and, 
with the assistance of the fleet, take all the settle- 
ments. The towns were to be burned after every- 
thing of value that could be removed had been taken 
out. 

Frontenac prepared his forces, and made ready to 
command them in person. But the fleet was de- 
tained by contrary winds until it was too late for 
the plan to be carried out that season. In Septem- 
ber a treaty of peace between France and England 
was signed at Ryswick, and thus the scheme for 
destroying the New England settlements came to 
nothiui^. 



124 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [i6g6. 

But before peace was declared, the French had 
met with unquahfied success in the north. As soon 
as Iberville had destroyed Pemaquid, he took charge 
of an expedition for the conquest of Newfoundland. 
The island was claimed by the English, by virtue of 
the discoveries of the Cabots and Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, and the fishing settlements planted by Eng- 
lishmen on the coast. The French, however, assert- 
ed that fishermen from Brittany, Normandy, and 
the Basque Provinces had fished on the coast long 
before, and that through them France had a prior 
claim. 

At this time the French had a town and a fort 
at Placentia Bay, which gave them control of the 
southern coast. The eastern coast was occupied by 
a long line of small English settlements, the princi- 
pal of which was St. John. Expeditions had been 
planned by each nation during the hostilities, for 
driving the other out ; but all of them had fallen 
through. 

When Iberville arrived, the Governor of Placentia 
was already at St. John with a fleet of privateers, 
attempting to take the place. Iberville joined him, 
and St. John was soon reduced to ashes. Then the 
ships were withdrawn, and Iberville with his soldiers 
and Indians marched along the eastern coast, attack- 
ing and destroying every town in turn. It was in 



1696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 125 

the depth of winter ; the ground was covered with 
snow and ice ; and the soldiers went stumbh'ng along 
the unbroken paths, tripping against rocks and logs 
concealed under the snow, but merry with the ex- 
citement of the march, and elated with their suc- 
cess ; for the villagers surrendered without the 
slightest resistance, and the soldiers plundered with- 
out restraint. Nothing was left to the English but 
Bonavista and Isle Carbonniere. 

In the spring, Iberville and his brother Serigny 
were sent to re-take Fort Nelson on Hudson Bay, 
which, after being taken by them in 1694, had fallen 
again into the hands of the English in 1696. The 
French called it Fort Bourbon. It was of great 
importance, being in the midst of a vast region 
abounding in valuable furs. The brothers set out 
with four ships of war and a transport. Although 
it was July when they entered Hudson Bay, the 
water was filled with floating ice, and the supply- 
ship was crushed. Iberville's ship, the Pelican, was 
in great danger, and when at last she got free and 
sailed into the unobstructed waters of the open bay, 
nothing was to be seen of the other three ; they were 
still struggling amid the ice. 

Iberville and his men sailed on alone to begin the 
attack ; but before they reached the fort, they were 
overtaken by three armed English ships. There was 



126 CLOSE OF KING IVILLI^IM'S WAR. [1697. 

a close and desperate engagement. One of the 
English ships sank under the heavy broadsides of the 
Pelicafij with, all on board ; another surrendered, and 
the third sailed away and escaped. The Pelican was 
badly injured ; and a fierce storm arising, she was 
stranded and split amidships by the fury of the wind 
and waves. The crew escaped to the shore, but 
they were in danger of starvation, and were about 
to make an attack on the fort as the only hope of 
saving themselves, when the three ships appeared. 
Fort Nelson, which was occupied by the traders of 
the Hudson Bay Company, was incapable of resist- 
ing an attack by mortars, and it soon surrendered. 

In the summer of 1695, Frontenac rebuilt the fort 
at the head of the St. Lawrence, on the site of the 
present city of Kingston, which was sometimes 
known as Fort Catarocouay, but named by him now, 
as before under the French, Fort Frontenac. He 
was determined either to conquer the Iroquois, or 
to bring them over to alliance with the French, or 
rather, perhaps, to bring them over by conquering 
them, if they should refuse to make a permanent 
treaty of peace. 

In the summer of 1696, he commanded in person 
an expedition against the Indians of New York, and 
with twenty-two hundred men crossed Lake Ontario 
to Oswego. The Onondagas, when they heard of 



iGgO.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 127 

the advance of the French, set fire to their principal 
village, and fled. One old man of the tribe was 
found hidden in a hollow tree, and was dragged out. 
The Indians who were with the French wanted to 
torture and burn him, while Frontenac was anxious 
to save him ; but the Indians were so clamorous, 
that it was finally decided to be the better policy to 
give him up. During the horrible tortures inflicted 
on him he never quailed, but taunted his tormentors 
to the last. When at length a mortal thrust was 
made, he said, " I thank you ; but you should have 
finished me by fire. Learn, dogs of Frenchmen, 
how to suffer, and you Indians, their allies, who are 
dogs of dogs, remember what you should do when 
you stand where I stand now." 

A party was sent out to destroy the corn in the 
fields of the Oneidas, most of whom had fled, 
though thirty-five had staid to defend their town 
and were taken prisoners. 

It was proposed that the army should next march 
against the Cayugas. But as it was of no use to 
march an army through the wilderness to take pos- 
session of a cluster of deserted wigwams, Frontenac 
decided to return home. In his despatches to the 
King, he represented the expedition as a brilliant 
triumph, which, indeed, would have been still more 
brilliant if the savages had made a stand, and given 



128 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1697. 

the French army a chance to overwhehn and defeat 
them completely, but which, nevertheless, would be 
of vast advantage to the French interest, in pre- 
venting an alliance between the Iroquois and the 
Indian allies of the French. He took care, also, to 
say that the triumph could not have been effected 
had it not been for the rebuilding of Fort Frontenac, 
a proceeding in which he had gone contrary to the 
wishes of the King, and eluded his express orders. 
For this exploit he was rewarded with the cross of 
the Military Order of St. Louis. 

Early in 1698, tidings of the peace which had 
been proclaimed at Ryswick, September 20th, 1697, 
reached Montreal, and in July official notice was 
sent with a letter from the King ordering Te Deuni 
to be sung in the cathedral of Quebec. An exchange 
of prisoners was proposed between the colonies of 
the two nations in America ; but a dispute arose 
between Frontenac and the Earl of Bellomont, 
Governor of New York, as to the exchange of the 
French prisoners in the hands of the Iroquois for 
the Iroquois in the hands of the French. Bellomont 
proposed to negotiate the exchange. Frontenac 
refused to treat with the Iroquois through the Eng- 
lish, which would have been an admission that the 
Iroquois were English subjects, whereas he chose to 
regard them as rebellious subjects of France. 



1698.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 129 

The death of Frontenac interrupted the quarrel. 
That able and intrepid officer had exercised a pow- 
erful influence on the fortunes of the French in 
America. Much less pure and disinterested than 
Champlain, exacting and quarrelsome, he continu- 
ally exasperated his associates in times of peace ; 
but when danger threatened the colony, they in- 
stinctively felt that in his leadership was almost 
certain victory. He died in November, 1698, at the 
age of seventy-eight. 

He was succeeded by Calli^res, upon whom de- 
volved the settlement of the dispute about the Iro- 
quois, who declined to allow the English to negoti- 
ate for them, asserting their independence of both 
the foreign powers. After many councils, and many 
wampum belts, and much eloquence, the exchange 
was effected ; but the question of the sovereignty of 
the west, and even of New York, still remained 
undecided. In the following year, 1700, the French 
in Acadia lost their efficient leader Villcbon. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 

The Spanish Succession — The Pretender — Attacks on Wells, Saco, 
Casco, Deerfield, and Lancaster — Church in Acadia — Destruction 
of English Towns in Newfoundland — Sieges of Port Royal — At- 
tack on Haverhill — Final Capture of Port Royal by the English — 
Insurrection of the Acadians — Attempted Conquest of Canada by 
Admiral Walker — Attack of the Foxes on Detroit — Treaty of 
Utrecht — Louisbourg — Father Rasles — Expeditions of liarmon, 
Westbrooke, Winslow, and Lovewell — Indian Treaty — Forts at 
Niagara, Oswego, and Crown Point. 

But a few years of peace succeeded the treaty of 
Ryswick. First came the contest in Europe over 
the Spanish succession — that is, the succession to 
the Spanish crown, which was bestowed upon one 
of the Bourbons, the reigning family of France. 
Tiiis threatened to give a great preponderance of 
power and influence to France, and William IIL, 
though he was old and sick, resolved to fight against 
a dangerous accession to the power of England's 
ancient enemy. But another cause of war soon 
arose. James II., the dethroned King of England, 
died at St. Germain in September, 1701 ; and be- 
fore he died he received a promise from Louis XIV., 
King of France, that he would recognize as King of 



1702.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 131 

England his son, James Stuart, often called " the 
Pretender" — or, in later years, after his son, Charles 
Edward, had also made a claim to the throne of his 
fathers, " the Old Pretender." 

This recognition was, of course, a challenge to 
England, and preparations were made for war. 
William III. died in March, 1702, and was succeed- 
ed by Anne, the sister of his wife, and daughter of 
James IT. War was declared by England against 
France, May 15th, 1702. The contest that followed 
is known in European history as the War of the 
Spanish Succession ; in American history, it is usu- 
ally called Queen Anne's War ; or the Second Inter- 
colonial War. On the one side were France, Spain, 
and Bavaria ; on the other, England, Holland, Sa- 
voy, Austria, Prussia, Portugal, and Denmark. It 
was in this war that the Duke of Marlborough won 
his fame. 

To the people of New England, war between 
France and England meant ^the hideous midnight 
war-whoop, the tomahawk and scalping-knife, burn- 
ing hamlets, and horrible captivity. To provide 
against it, a conference was called to meet at Fal- 
mouth, on Casco Bay, in June, 1703, when Governor 
Dudley, of Massachusetts, met many of the chiefs of 
the Abenaquis. The Indians, professing to have no 
thought of war, promised peace and friendship by 



132 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1703. 

their accustomed tokens, and it was believed in New 
England that they were sincere, and would be neu- 
tral during any hostilities that might arise between 
the English and French colonies. 

But, as usual, only a part of the tribes had been 
brought into the alliance, those on and west of the 
Penobscot ; and a party of lawless plunderers, by 
attacking and pillaging St. Castin's place, roused 
the resentment of the tribe on that river and dis- 
posed them to listen to the insinuations of their 
ancient allies. French persuasions were successful, 
and by August five hundred French and Indians 
were assembled, ready for incursions into the New 
England settlements. 

They divided into several bands and fell upon a 
number of places at the same time. Wells, Saco, 
and Casco were again among the doomed villages, 
but the fort at Casco was not taken, owing to the 
arrival of an armed vessel under Captain Southwick. 
About one hundred ar;d fifty persons were killed or 
captured in these attacks. In a night of February, 
1704, a large party under Hertel de Rouville reached 
the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and hid them- 
selves In a pine forest until morning. The people 
had received information from Colonel Schuyler that 
they were in danger of attack, and twenty soldiers 
were sent to them as a guard. On this night, how- 



1704.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 133 

ever, the watch went to sleep two hours before day- 
break. The town was surrounded with palisades ; 
but huge drifts of snow were piled up against them, 
and they were no defence. The invaders entered 
undiscovered, and in a few hours forty-seven of the 
inhabitants were killed, the town was in flames, and 
one hundred and twelve prisoners were on their way 
to Canada. The journey to Quebec was long and 
painful, and two of the men starved on the way, for 
the party had to depend on hunting for support. 
Most of the prisoners were in time redeemed. 

On the 30th of July, the town of Lancaster was 
assailed, and a few people were killed, seven build- 
ings burned, and much property destroyed. These 
and other depredations of war-parties along the 
coasts filled New England with consternation. The 
governments of Massachusetts and New Hampshire 
offered a bounty of twenty pounds for every Indian 
prisoner under ten years, and forty for every one 
above that age, or for the scalp of one. Yet but 
few were taken, even at that price. It was then 
resolved to fit out an expedition for retaliation, and 
as usual the people of Acadia were selected to expi- 
ate the sins of the Indians and Canadians. 

Colonel Benjamin Church was put in command of 
five hundred and fifty men, fourteen transports, and 
thirty-six whale-boats, convoyed by three ships of 



134 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1704. 

war. Sailing from Boston in May, 1704, he stopped 
at Penobscot, and killed and took captive a few 
French and Indians, among them a daughter and 
several grandchildren of St. Castin. At Passama- 
quoddy he met with similar success, and then sailed 
on to the Bay of Fundy. The ships of war were 
sent to Port Royal, where they did nothing but wait 
for him to come back. Church himself went on with 
the other vessels to Minas, farther up the bay. This 
place was built on marsh lands, enclosed by dykes. 
The soldiers cut the dykes, plundered and burned 
the dwellings, and took some prisoners. 

Returning to Port Royal, Church discreetly re- 
frained from attacking a fortified place, and the 
officers signed a declaration that their force was in- 
sufficient for an assault. Chignecto was next visit- 
ed, twenty houses were burned, large numbers of 
cattle killed, and the whole settlement ravaged. 
The only thing that can be said in excuse for this 
kind of warfare is, that it was less cruel than the 
barbarous attacks for which it was intended to re- 
taliate. 

In 1705, four hundred and fifty men under Suber- 
case — soldiers, Canadian peasants, adventurers, and 
Indians, well armed, and with rations for twenty 
days, blankets, and tents — set out to destroy the 
English settlements in Newfoundland, marching on 



I yog.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 135 

snow-shoes. They took Petit Havre and St. John's, 
and devastated all the little settlements along the 
eastern coast, and the English trade was for the 
time completely broken up. 

Subercase was made Governor of Acadia in 1706. 
The following spring New England sent Colonel 
March to Port Royal with two regiments, but he 
returned without assaulting the fort. Governor 
Dudley forbade the troops to land when they came 
back to Boston, and ordered them to go again. 
Colonel March was ill, and Colonel Wainwright took 
command ; but after a pretence of besieging the 
fort for eleven days, he retired with small loss, the 
expedition having cost Massachusetts two thousand 
two hundred pounds. 

In 1708 a council at Montreal decided to send a 
large number of Canadians and Indians to devastate 
New England. But after a long march through the 
almost impassable mountain region of northern New 
Hampshire, a murderous attack on Haverhill, in 
Avhich thirty or forty were killed, was the only re- 
sult. Thirty of the assailants were killed by a pur- 
suing party from neighboring settlements, under 
Samuel Ayer, and some of the prisoners were 
rescued. Ayer himself fell a victim to his brave 
effort in behalf of his neighbors. 

In 1709 a plan was formed in England for the capt- 



136 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1710. 

ure of New France by a fleet and five regiments of 
British soldiers aided by the colonists. But a defeat 
in Portugal called away the ships destined for 
America, and a force gathered at Lake Champlain 
under Colonel Nicholson for a land attack was so re- 
duced by sickness — said to have resulted from the 
poisoning of a spring by Indians — that they burned 
their canoes and retreated. 

The next year, Nicholson was furnished with six 
ships of war, thirty transports, and one British and 
four New England regiments, for the capture of 
Port Royal. Subercase had only two hundred and 
sixty men and an insufficient supply of provisions. 
His soldiers were disaffected, and as soon as the 
ships appeared they began deserting, complaining 
that they had been neglected and abandoned by 
their own country. Subercase had to order the 
canoes removed to prevent a general desertion. 

Nicholson sent a summons to surrender, after 
three days* waiting, landed his troops after three 
days more, and bombarded the fort after another 
week. The inhabitants of the town petitioned Su- 
bercase to surrender. Nothing else could be done, 
and on the i6th of October the starving and ragged 
garrison marched out to be sent to PVance. For the 
last time the French flag was hauled down from the 
fort, and Port Royal was henceforth an English for- 



I7II.J QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 137 

tress, which was re-named Annapolis Royal, in honor 
of Queen Anne. 

Subercase sent St. Castin to Quebec to carry the 
news, and Nicholson despatched a letter to Vau- 
dreuil, the Governor, by Major Livingstone, threat- 
ening reprisals on the people of Acadia, if the bar- 
barities of French and Indians in New England were 
continued. Vaudreuil replied that the French were 
able to avenge anything he might do ; that they 
were not responsible for the acts of the Indians ; 
that they had not treated prisoners with inhuman- 
ity ; and that a truce might long ago have put a 
stop to hostilities if the English had been willing. 
He appointed St. Castin his lieutenant in Acadia, 
and directed him and the missionaries to keep alive 
the loyalty of the French and preserve the friendship 
of the Indians. 

They were so successful that the next year, when 
the garrison of Port Royal was weakened by disease, 
death, and even desertion, the inhabitants refused 
to obey the commandant's order to bring in timber 
for repairing the fort. Sixty men sent out to seize 
a band of Indians and Acadians fell into an ambus- 
cade ; half were killed, and the remainder taken pris- 
oners. The people of the town then sent word to 
the commandant, that since he, as they thought, 
had violated the terms of the surrender, they deemed 



1 3 S Q UEEN A NNE ' S WAR. [i 7 1 1. 

themselves absolved from their agreement not to 
bear arms, and one of the priests went to Placentia 
for arms, ammunition, and an ofificer to lead the in- 
surgents. Rut by this time news of the uprising had 
reached Boston, and two hundred men from there 
soon reduced the insurgents, captured the supplies, 
and forced St. Castin to fly to Quebec. 

Immediately after his victory, Nicholson went to 
England to secure a force for the conquest of 
Canada ; and about the same time Colonel Schuyler 
of New York went there for the same purpose, tak- 
ing with him five Iroquois sachems to awaken inter- 
est in the cause, and to insure the fidelity of the 
tribes to the English alliance. The chiefs caused a 
great sensation throughout the kingdom. The court 
was in mourning, and the sachems were therefore 
dressed in black suits, but over them they wore 
mantles of scarlet cloth bordered with gold. They 
were taken in coaches to an audience with the 
Queen ; and presented her with belts of wampum, 
while one of them made a speech, saying : " We 
were greatly rejoiced when we heard that our great 
Queen had resolved to send an army against 
Canada. We hung up the kettle, and took down 
the hatchet. But while we were getting ready we 
were told that our great Queen could not send the 
army. We were very sorrowful. We cannot hunt 



I7II.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 139 

in freedom if Canada is not taken. So that if our 
great Queen does not remember us, we must take 
our families and forsake our country, or stand neu- 
tral while the French are fighting our friends." 

The Secretary of State, St. John, afterward Vis- 
count Bolingbroke, planned the expedition. Fifteen 
ships of war and forty transports, placed under the 
command of Sir Hovenden Walker, carried seven 
regiments of veterans from the Duke of Marlbor- 
ough's arniy, and a battalion of marines under the 
command of Brigadier-General Hill. They arrived 
in Boston on the 25th of June, and encamped on 
Noddle's Island, now East Boston. A great crowd 
of people gathered to witness the review of the 
troops. " They made a very fine appearance," 
wrote the Admiral, " such as had never before been 
in these parts of the world." 

New England and New York had raised two regi- 
ments to join the fleet ; and on the 30th of July 
sixty-eight vessels, carrying six thousand five hun- 
dred soldiers, set sail for Quebec. New York, New 
Jersey, and Connecticut collected about four thou- 
sand men, including a thousand Indians, to march 
against Montreal, under Colonels Schuyler, Whiting, 
and Ingoldsby, while Nicholson had the general care 
of the expedition. It was expected, also, that the 
Indian tribe called Foxes, in Wisconsin, whose 



I40 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1711. 

alliance had been secured through the Iroquois, 
would begin hostilities against the French in the 
stations on the lakes. 

When Vaudreuil learned that a hostile fleet was 
on its way to Quebec and an army marching toward 
Montreal, he first gathered the Onondaga and Sen- 
eca deputies and persuaded them to remain neu- 
tral. Then he gave a great festival, at which the 
war-song was sung and the hatchet raised. There 
were the Christian Indians of the settlements near 
Montreal, called the Sault and the Mountain ; there 
were the Indians of the various mission stations of 
the Jesuits ; there were Algonquin chiefs from the 
banks of the St. Lawrence, Ottawas, and Hurons, 
and Chippewas from beyond the lakes. The raising 
of the hatchet by the Hurons decided these remoter 
tribes ; and when the festival ended, they were all 
declared allies of the French. Quebec was strength- 
ened, and the settlements along the banks below 
were guarded sufficiently to prevent the landing of 
the hostile troops. Three thousand men were 
placed at Chambly to meet the army from Albany 
on its way to Montreal. 

But the fleet was destined never to see Quebec. 
Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker was busy with inge- 
nious plans for taking care of his vessels at Quebec 
during the winter after he should have taken the 



I7II.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 141 

place. He said, " the ice in the river, freezing to 
the bottom, would bilge them as much as if they 
were to be squeezed between rocks," and concluded 
that the better way would be to ** secure them on 
the dry ground in frames and cradles, till the thaw." 
Meantime he remained in complete ignorance of the 
real difficulties and dangers that lay in his path. 
He had with him a French seaman of experience 
named Paradis, and by following his advice might 
have navigated the river in safety. But, refusing 
all counsel, he gave orders according to his own no- 
tions, and the fleet approached during a fog very 
near a small island ; a sudden wind from the south- 
east drove the ships toward it, eight of them were 
wrecked, and eight hundred and eighty-four men 
were drowned. 

After this disaster, the Admiral ordered his fleet 
about and bore off to the coast of Cape Breton, 
where he held a council of officers. All agreed that 
it was not advisable to go on ; there was but ten 
weeks' provision for the men, and a supply could 
hardly arrive in time from New England. In re- 
porting it. Walker philosophized thus : " Had we 
arrived safe at Quebec, ten or twelve thousand men 
must have been left to perish of cold and hunger ; 
thus by the loss of a part. Providence saved all the 
rest !" The Admiral's ships sailed for England and 



142 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1711. 

the provincial vessels carried home the New Eng- 
land troops. Nicholson, who had reached Lake 
George when he heard of the issue of the attack on 
Quebec, returned home and abandoned his under- 
taking also. 

In the following year, the French were assailed by 
a new enemy, the Foxes, or Ottagamies, whom the 
Iroquois had drawn into an alliance against them. 
A party of their warriors set out to burn Detroit, 
which was defended by only twenty men under Du 
Buisson. But, having timely warning, Du Buisson 
sent swift messages to the Jesuit stations to have 
the Indian allies of the French sent to his relief. 
They poured in from every side and surrounded the 
Foxes, who soon found themselves the besieged in- 
stead of the besiegers. They held out with desper- 
ate bravery, but were at last compelled to surren- 
der. The warriors of the party were slain at once, 
and the rest divided as slaves among the conquer- 
ors. But the French had gained an implacable foe ; 
and for a long time the Foxes and some more nu- 
merous tribes with which they were leagued con- 
tinued to harass the French posts at the West. 

Negotiations for peace began in Europe in 1712, 
but were not concluded till the following year. The 
power of France had been humbled ; and not only 
did the policy of England prevail in the settlement 



1713.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 143 

of questions regarding European territory, but Eng- 
land also gained large tracts of land in America 
which had been claimed by her enemy. Although 
France was left in possession of Louisiana, England 
gained Newfoundland, Hudson Bay and Straits with 
the land adjoining, the Island of St. Christopher, 
and Nova Scotia or Acadia, according to its ancient 
boundaries. The Iroquois, or Five Nations, were 
recognized as being under the dominion of the Eng- 
lish, and it was stipulated that France should never 
molest them. The treaty of peace was signed at 
Utrecht, April nth, 1713. 

But there was still abundant room for future mis- 
understandings and disputes. The limits of the 
territory of the Five Nations were indefinite, the 
French applied the name Louisiana to the entire 
valley of the Mississippi and the Ohio, and the 
boundaries of Acadia had long been a subject of dis- 
pute. The French claimed that only the southern 
portion of the peninsula of Nova Scotia was proper- 
ly included in Acadia ; while the English applied the 
name to a great territory bounded by the St. Law- 
rence, the ocean and gulf, and a line drawn from 
the mouth of the Kennebec to Quebec, and includ- 
ing the islands of Cape Breton and St. John, now 
Prince Edward Island. 

Large numbers of the Acadians, restive under 



144 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1713. 

British rule, removed to the provinces still under the 
control of the French, many of them to Cape Breton 
Island. A large settlement was formed at Louis- 
burg on the southeastern shore of the island. Here 
was a fine harbor, half a mile broad, and here in 
time arose the strongest fortress in America, pro- 
tecting the French fisheries and forming a refuge 
for privateers in time of war. 

The Abenaquis, seeing with jealousy the growth 
of the English settlements in their territory, sent an 
embassy to the Governor of Canada, asking if the 
French had really given up their country to the 
English. Vaudreuil answered that nothing was said 
about their country in the treaty ; and the Indians, 
resolved to undertake their own defence, attacked 
the English fishermen at Canso, killing several and 
robbing them of all they had, and committing other 
similar depredations. 

The New England people had long been suspi- 
cious of the influence of a Jesuit missionary, Sebas- 
tian Rasles, at Norridgewock, on the Kennebec. He 
had been at the Jesuit mission on the Chaudi^re, 
had travelled through the west in pursuit of his call- 
ing, and was familiar with many of the Indian lan- 
guages. For twenty-five years he had been on 
the Kennebec, where he had gathered a flourish- 
ing congregation of savages, and built a church 



I72I.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 145 

which he had decorated with pictures painted by his 
own hand, and whose glittering altar v/as looked on 
with reverent awe by savage eyes. His altar-boys 
were little Indians, gorgeous in red and white ; and 
their chanting processions were a favorite bid for the 
admiration of the natives. The old man shared the 
journeys and the dangers of his flock, and his influ- 
ence over them was unbounded. This influence, 
there was every reason to believe, was used to incite 
them to depredations on the English settlements ; 
he was said to keep a flag on which was a cross sur- 
rounded by bows and arrows, which he used to raise 
on a pole in front of the church when he gave them 
absolution before they set out on their warlike en- 
terprises. 

Father Rasles was therefore marked for destruc- 
tion. On occasion of the Abenaquis threatening 
reprisals if some of their chiefs who were held by 
the Massachusetts Government as hostages were not 
released, a party of men under Colonel Westbrook 
was sent in December, 1721, to capture the priest. 
The hunters were away on the chase, and there was 
no one to protect him ; but, warned of Westbrook's 
approach, he fled to the woods in haste, leaving his 
papers behind. Among them was his correspond- 
ence with the Governor of Canada, which proved 
that the suspicions against him were not unfounded. 



146 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1722. 

There was also a dictionary in manuscript of the 
Abenaquis language, which has been preserved, and 
was printed by the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences in 1833. At about the same time the 
young Baron de St. Castin was also seized, as dan- 
gerous to the peace of the settlements in the east, 
and taken to Boston. 

Exasperated by these attempts on their leaders, 
the Indians determined on war. They invited all 
the tribes of their own nation not only, but those 
near Quebec, to unite with them. The first blow 
was struck at Merry Meeting Bay, near the junction 
of the Androscoggin with the Kennebec, where 
Brunswick now stands. A party of sixty Indians 
captured nine families, but they afterward released 
all but five men, whom they kept as security for 
their hostages in the hands of the English. Two 
attacks on the fort at the River St. George were un- 
successful, as were nearly all Indian attempts on 
fortified places ; but many fishing and trading ves- 
sels fell into their hands, and with these they cruised 
about the coast, compelling the captured seamen to 
serve as their crews. Two armed vessels sent out 
by the Governor of Nova Scotia re-took all the ves- 
sels, numbering more than twenty, and put a stop 
to the piracies for the time. 

Parties sent out the next year, under Captain 



1724.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR, 147 

Harmon and Colonel Westbrook, made some repri- 
sals on the savages. Harmon pursued a party of 
thirty-four, and killed fifteen of them as they lay by 
their camp-fires. Westbrook took a large party of 
men to a village on the Penobscot, supposed to have 
been above Bangor at Old Town ; it was deserted, 
and they set fire to it, and all the buildings in it, 
including a well-built stockade fort, a chapel, and 
the residence of the priests, were laid in ashes. 
During this year the Indians were comparatively 
quiet, but in 1724 they broke out afresh. Men 
working in the fields, or for any reason away from 
the settlements, were liable to death or capture at 
any moment. At Kennebunk a sloop was taken, 
and every man on it was put to death. 

Captain Josiah Winslow and sixteen men who 
were with him were surprised on the St. George, and 
every one of them was killed. Annapolis was at- 
tacked, and a party sent out from the fort was de- 
feated. The priest of Annapolis, who was at Mi- 
nas when the Indians gathered there, and might 
have given warning of the intended attack, was ex- 
pelled from the colony and sent to Louisburg ; an- 
other priest, who did send a warning, although it 
arrived too late, was thanked and promoted by the 
English ; but the church authorities afterward su- 
perseded hirn, placing in Minas, where the English 



148 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1724. 

had stationed him, one more faithful to the French 
interest. 

The same year another expedition was planned to 
seize the hated Father Rasles. He had been urged 
to fly to Canada ; but, though he knew the danger, 
he would not leave his post. " God has given this 
flock into my care," he said, " and I shall not leave 
it." This time the assailants succeeded in taking 
Norridgewock by surprise. The Indians made lit- 
tle resistance ; all who could get away fled to the 
river, crossed it, and escaped to the forest. Father 
Rasles, who was in his wigwam, went forward to 
help his flock to escape by drawing the attention of 
the assailants to himself, and was struck down at 
once, killed, scalped, and trodden under foot. After 
pillaging the church and the dwellings, the soldiers 
set them on fire and retired. The mourning Indians 
buried their priest beneath the ground where his 
altar had stood, and now a monument to his mem- 
ory marks the spot where he fell. 

In the following year Captain John Lovewell, of 
Dunstable, impelled by patriotism, or the desire of 
adventure, or the bounty on scalps, led out a party 
of men. Ten Indians asleep beside the Salmon 
Falls River were surprised and killed, and Lovewell 
received one thousand pounds for the ten scalps. 
The next expedition was not so fortunate ; it fell 




li 




'J. 

w 

< 

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( 



I73I-] QUEEN ANNE' S WAR. 149 

into an ambuscade on the Saco ; and Lovewell and 
half of his thirty-four men lost their lives. Love- 
well's Pond, near Fryeburg, where he fell, is named 
for him, and the brook flowing into it is called Bat- 
tle Brook. 

In the summer of the same year, a conference with 
the Indians was held at the fort on the St. George. 
They seemed disposed for peace, and in November 
four of the chiefs were called to Boston to form a 
treaty. They acknowledged the title of the English 
to Nova Scotia and Acadia, and promised to main- 
tain peace and deliver up their prisoners. The treaty 
was faithfully observed, and the eastern colonies 
had a season of rest from the horrors of Indian 
warfare. 

In 1726, the French built a fort at Niagara, where 
they had long had a trading-post ; and in the follow- 
ing year, Governor Burnet, of New York, built what 
he called a " stone house of strength " at Oswego. 
The Governor of Canada remonstrated, and threat- 
ened to destroy it, but did not venture on any vio- 
lence. In 1 73 1, the French built Fort Frederick 
at Crown Point, thus asserting their claim to north- 
eastern New York. 



CHAPTER IX. 

KING GEORGE'S WAR. 

Sovereigns of England — The Austrian Succession — Maria Theresa — 
Frederick the Great — The War — Hostilities between France and 
England — Attacks on Canso and Annapolis — La Loutre — Pro- 
posed Expedition to Louisbourg — Shirley, Pepperell, and Vaughan 
— Commodore Warren — Whitefield — Siege and Fall of Louis- 
bourg — Rejoicings in Boston — Project to Conquer Canada — Fight- 
ing in Acadia — Fate of the French Fleet — Success of Ramezay at 
Grand Pre — Capture of Jonquiere's Fleet — The French and Ind- 
ians on the Western Frontier — Inactivity of the English — Possible 
Reasons for it — The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

Peace reigned between France and England for 
thirty years after the Treaty of Utrecht. Queen 
Anne, the last of the Stuart line of sovereigns, 
died in 17 14, and was succeeded by George I., first 
English king of the House of Hanover, who in- 
herited through his mother, the Electress Sophia of 
Hanover, granddaughter of James I. of England. 
He died in 1727, and was succeeded by his son, 
George H. It was during the reign of this king 
that England became engaged in the next war which 
involved the colonies of North America. 

In 1740, Charles VI., Emperor of Germany, died. 
Many years before, he had taken measures to secure 
to his daughter, Maria Theresa, the succession to 



1740.] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 151 

his hereditary dominions ; and he hoped that after 
his death her husband, the Duke of Tuscany, would 
be chosen by the electors to wear the imperial crown. 
To secure the inheritance to his daughter, he pro- 
claimed a law called the " Pragmatic Sanction," 
regulating the succession. Many of the powers of 
Europe demurred ; but by ceding away parts of his 
dominions to the other monarchies of the continent, 
the Emperor at length gained their consent. After 
his death, however, claims were made to his domin- 
ions by several princes, on grounds having more or 
less color of justice in themselves, but all were set 
aside by the Pragmatic Sanction to which they had 
pledged their support. 

The young queen had been carefully educated 
with a view to the position her father designed 
her to occupy. She had shared his counsels, and 
learned something of the art of governing. She 
was twenty-three years of age when her father died, 
and being gifted with beauty, unusual mental abili- 
ty, and a high spirit, she was well fitted to attract 
the loyalty of her father's subjects. 

The first to attack the rights of the young queen 
was the King of Prussia, Frederick II., called the 
Great. Raising some pretence of a right to the 
possession of Silesia, which had been under Aus- 
tria for more than a hundred years, he prepared an 



152 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1740. 

army of thirty thousand men, and sent them into 
the country, in December, 1740, without having 
made any declaration of war, or any demand for the 
province ; indeed, he had until then professed to be 
friendly to the interests of Maria Theresa. 

After filling Silesia with his forces, Frederick 
sent an ambassador to the Queen, offering to aid her 
against her other enemies, if she would cede to him 
the duchy which he had invaded, which she indig- 
nantly refused to do. He then overran the whole of 
Lower Silesia with his troops, and Prussia was suc- 
cessful in the first battle with Austria, that of Moll- 
witz, in April, 1741, though Frederick himself ran 
away. Then all the other claimants rushed on to 
the dismemberment of the Austrian Empire. France 
took the part of the Elector of Bavaria, who claimed 
the throne. Prussia, France, Spain, and Poland were 
combined against the Queen. Thus began the War 
of the Austrian Succession. 

Maria Theresa was obliged to yield Silesia to 
Frederick, in June, 1742, but succeeded in maintain- 
ing her claim to most of her other dominions, while 
the Elector of Bavaria was thoroughly humbled. 
The war now became a struggle on the part of Aus- 
tria to wrest Alsace and Lorraine from France, and 
Naples from Spain, and to make Bavaria a part of 
the Austrian dominions. England had aided Aus- 



1744] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 1 53 

tria by subsidies and troops, and her forces met the 
army of France in the battle of Dettingen in June, 
1743. But it was not until March, 1744, that war 
was formally declared between France and England. 

When the news of the declaration of war was sent 
to Louisbourg, orders were also sent that no offen- 
sive measures should be taken until reenforcements 
should arrive. But it was thought that a sudden at- 
tack on the small garrisons at Annapolis and Canso, 
before help could arrive from New England, could 
not fail of success. Du Vivier, a great-grandson of 
Charles la Tour, so prominent in the early history 
of Acadia, taking command of five hundred men, of 
whom two hundred were Indians, and several vessels, 
attacked the block-house at Canso, in May, 1744. 
Having no chance of a successful defence, the gar- 
rison of eighty men surrendered at once, and were 
taken to Louisbourg, on condition that they should 
be sent, at the end of a year, to England or to 
Boston. The buildings were all destroyed by Du 
Vivier's men. 

It remained only to take Annapolis. The fort 
was an earthwork in a ruinous condition, held by 
one hundred and fifty men under Paul Mascarene. 
Du Vivier took his prisoners to Louisbourg, and re- 
mained there some time, making preparations for 
going to Annapolis. Meantime, a rumor reached 



154 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [i744- 

that place that five hundred French and Indians, on 
the way to attack it, were already on the river above 
the town. A vessel soon arrived from Boston bring- 
ing news of the declaration of war, and the officers 
and soldiers of the garrison sent their families to 
Boston by the return of the galley, two other ves- 
sels being sent with it, thus greatly relieving the 
place of those unable to bear arms. The men then 
went to work repairing the fortifications. 

The Indians who had been with Du Vivier at 
Canso grew impatient waiting for his return ; and 
they were easily persuaded by Belleisle, a scion of 
the St. Castin family, to march against Annapolis 
under his leadership without waiting for Du Vivier. 
They were accompanied by their priest. La Loutre, 
who, like most of the priests in Acadia, had been 
faithfully laboring to keep his flock loyal to French 
interests. If the Indians had been supported 
by Du Vivier's soldiers, Annapolis would proba- 
bly have fallen ; for it was not in a condition to 
withstand a determined assault. But the Indians 
pursued their usual methods, picking off strag- 
glers and firing from under cover. The English 
sent out a party of workmen and soldiers, who drove 
them back and tore down all buildings that could 
protect them from the guns of the fort, and they 
were glad to escape with a few stolen cattle. 



1 744-] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 155 

Reenforcements were sent from Boston to the 
number of one hundred men or more. Du Vivier 
returned with two hundred soldiers, expecting a 
general rising among the inhabitants ; but there was 
only a feeble response to his summons to them to 
enlist under the banner of France and bring in sup- 
plies for the expedition ; and the Indians were dis- 
heartened by their failure. Many of the savages, 
however, joined him, and late in August he began 
his attack. After several days of ineffectual firing, 
he sent in a flag of truce, saying that three ships of 
war were on their way to his assistance, together 
with a large body of soldiers, and supplies of cannon 
and mortars, and offering to accept a capitulation 
conditioned on their arrival ; but Mascarene refused 
to have any negotiations with him. The attacks 
were resumed and kept up night after night, until 
late in September, when another reenforcement ar- 
rived from Boston. 

Having learned from a prisoner that Mascarene 
talked of attacking his camp, Du Vivier hastily drew 
off to Minas, and finally returned to Louisbourg. 
It was not long after Du Vivier abandoned the siege, 
that a part of his ships arrived ; but finding him 
gone, they withdrew, while Mascarene kept his men 
at work strengthening the defences during the au- 
tumn and winter, in expectation of another attack. 



156 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1745. 

La Loutre gathered a force of Indians again, who 
were joined by some Canadian troops, and in the 
spring they made a feeble attack on Annapolis, 
and prowled about the country, but with no greater 
success than the capture of two trading- vessels. 

The soldiers taken at Canso, who had been sent 
to Boston on parole, gave information regarding the 
condition of the fortress, and in January, 1745, the 
question of an expedition for its capture began to 
be agitated. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts 
had written to England the preceding autumn, 
asking help for the protection of Nova Scotia and 
the capture of Louisbourg ; but as yet no answer 
had been received. In January he laid the project 
before the State Legislature in a secret session. It 
was at first rejected, so improbable did it seem that 
a provincial force could effect the capture of the 
strongest post in North America. But afterward, 
on a complaint from the merchants of Boston, Sa- 
lem, and Marblehead, of the injuries to their vessels 
from the privateers which found refuge at Louis- 
bourg, the project was reconsidered, and resolved 
on by a majority of one. 

The other provinces were asked to render aid. 
Connecticut sent five hundred and sixteen men, 
New Hampshire three hundred and four ; and these, 
with the three thousand two hundred and fifty 



I745-] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 157 

raised in Massachusetts, constituted the whole force. 
Rhode Island sent three hundred, but they arrived 
too late. New York gave some artillery, and Penn- 
sylvania some provisions. The New England colo- 
nies furnished thirteen armed vessels. Commodore 
Warren, who was at Antigua, was solicited to send 
some of his ships, but declined doing so without 
express orders from England. 

It was a question who should command this expe- 
dition. With the exception of some little irregular 
fighting with the Indians, peace had reigned through- 
out the colonies for thirty years ; and there were no 
officers to be had in the provinces with any knowl- 
edge of the science of regular warfare. The choice 
fell upon William Pepperell, of Kittery, a colonel 
of militia, who, as a merchant, a landholder in three 
of the provinces, and a man of clear judgment and 
weight of character, would be likely to have influence 
with those of his countrymen who were to be led on 
this great undertaking. 

Immense enthusiasm attended the fitting out of 
the expedition. Pepperell sought advice from the 
celebrated preacher, George Whitefield, on the 
question of accepting the proffered command, and 
Whitefield answered that if he should fail, the re- 
sponsibility for the blood of the fallen would be laid 
to his charge, and that if he should succeed, he 



158 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1745. 

would become an object of malicious envy to bis 
fellow-citizens. In spite of this dark augury, Pep- 
perell accepted. To the New Hampshire troops 
who asked him for a motto, Whitefield gave, Nil 
desperanduni, Christo Diice — '' Nothing is to be de- 
spaired of, Christ being the leader." In this spirit 
of religious enthusiasm, one of the volunteers car- 
ried an axe wherewith to hew down the crosses and 
images in the French churches. All sorts of advice 
and schemes for the protection of the volunteers 
and the speedy capture of the fort were laid before 
the officers. One inventive enthusiast brought a 
model of a flying bridge which would land the army 
within the walls at a single bound. A minister had 
a scheme for avoiding the explosion of mines, 
and taking Louisbourg without the loss of a life. 
Another had made a complete plan of the siege, 
the camp, the batteries, the intrenchments. Gov- 
ernor Shirley's instructions were, that the army 
should land in the night and march to surprise the 
fortress before daybreak. 

Late in March, 1745, the fleet set sail, carrying 
the army of fishermen, farmers, mechanics, and lum- 
bermen, under their citizen General, William Pep- 
perell, Brigadier-General Waldo, and their subor- 
dinate officers, mostly chosen from among the 
church deacons, justices of the peace, and other cit- 



1745] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 159 

izens of respectability and consideration in their 
townships. Among them was the soldier, Colonel 
William Vaughan, who had first suggested the enter- 
prise to Governor Shirley. 

Arriving at Canso early in April, they found the 
coast of Cape Breton so clogged with ice that not a 
vessel could enter the harbors, which made it probable 
that no news of their intentions could have reached 
the fort. While they were waiting, Pepperell had 
a block-house built in place of the one that had 
been destroyed the previous year, and garrisoned it 
with eighty men. Their spirits were raised by the 
capture of a richly-loaded vessel on its way from 
Martinique to Louisbourg, and still more by the 
arrival of four ships of war under Commodore War- 
ren, who had received instructions from England to 
go to the help of the colonies, just after his refusal 
to proceed without orders had been despatched to 
Boston. More ships of war soon after arrived, and 
in a few days Louisbourg was blockaded, Warren's 
ships guarded the entrance to the harbor, and the 
places in the vicinity from which supplies might be 
sent were surprised and held. 

Louisbourg was fortified with a stone rampart 
thirty feet high and forty feet thick at the base, 
which swept around the town in a circuit of two 
miles, and was surrounded by a ditch eighty feet 



i6o KING GEORGE'S WAR. [i745. 

wide. Six bastions stood out from this great wall, 
and there were embrasures for a hundred and forty- 
eight cannon and six mortars. On an island at the 
entrance of the harbor was a battery of thirty 
pieces, and on the shore opposite the entrance was 
the grand or royal battery of twenty-eight forty- 
two pounders and two eighteen-pounders, with a 
moat and bastions. Near the drawbridge, giving 
entrance to the town on the land side, was a circular 
battery mounting sixteen twenty-four pounders. 
This fortress, which was twenty-five years in build- 
ing, cost thirty millions of livres, and was called the 
''Dunkirk of America," is now a lonely ruin, the 
former military importance of the place having 
entirely passed away. 

The appearance of the fleet in Chapeaurouge, or 
Gabarus Bay, southward from the city. May 30th, 
was the first intimation of danger the French had 
received. They fired cannon, rang bells, and ran 
about in confusion ; and a hundred and fifty soldiers, 
under an officer named Boulardiere, were sent out 
to prevent the landing. But Pepperell quietly sent 
a detachment farther up the Bay while Boulardiere's 
attention was fixed on the spot where it was sup- 
posed the attempt would be made, and Boulardiere 
was obliged to retire into the city again. About 
two thousand men were landed that day, and by 



I745-] KING GEORGE'S WAR. l6i 

the next night all were on shore. Colonel Vaughan 
took a party of New Hampshire men and marched 
past the city to the northeast harbor, where they 
burned a number of warehouses containing naval 
stores and large quantities of wine and brandy. 
The smoke was carried into the royal battery, a 
panic seized the men in charge of it, and they 
spiked their guns and fled. 

In the morning Vaughan 's men took possession 
of the deserted battery. Boat-loads of men from 
the city came to dislodge them, but Vaughan stood 
on the shore with thirteen men and prevented 
them from landing till reenforcements came. The 
spiked cannon were drilled out and turned on the 
city and the island battery, throwing a deadly fire 
within the walls and reaching the roof of the cita- 
del. To a summons to surrender, on the 7th of 
May, Du Chambon, the commandant, returned a 
refusal ; but his men had been so mutinous before 
the siege that he did not dare trust them to make 
a sortie, for fear of desertion. 

In order to place batteries for more effective work, 
it was necessary to carry the guns over a morass. 
Sledges were made, and the men drew them by straps 
passed over their shoulders, sinking to their knees 
in the bog. This task consumed fourteen nights. 

Several attempts were made by the besiegers to 



i62 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [i745- 

take the island battery, but all without success ; 
one, a night attack, was a disastrous failure. The 
assailants, discovered before they could land, and 
met by a sharp fire, were glad to escape after nearly 
an hour's hard fighting, having lost sixty men killed 
and a hundred and sixteen prisoners. Despairing 
of taking the island battery, the Americans then 
placed a battery on the high cape at the light- 
house on the eastern side of the harbor, which com- 
manded the island battery, and nearly silenced it. 

The siege had now lasted almost six weeks, and 
the city had neither been entered nor had a breach 
been made in the walls. Other ships of war had 
arrived, and it was agreed that the fleet should sail 
into the harbor and bombard while the land 
forces attempted an entrance by storm. At this 
time the Vigilanty a French ship, carrying sixty- 
four guns, arrived with military supplies for the 
garrison, and was taken by a Massachusetts frigate 
under the command of Captain Edward Tyng. 
Pepperell sent news of the capture to Du Chambon 
under a flag of truce, and this so discouraged the 
commandant that he determined to capitulate, and 
on the 17th of June Louisbourg was surrendered, 
after a siege of forty-nine days. The garrison, the 
crew of the Vigilant, and some of the inhabitants of 
the town were sent to France. 



1 745-] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 163 

When the American troops entered the fortress 
they for the first time realized the strength of the 
place and the magnitude of the enterprise, the 
undertaking of which now seemed presumptuous, 
and its success little short of a miracle. With the 
feeling that Providence had manifestly interfered to 
give them the victory, they listened to the chaplain 
who proclaimed the gospel according to Calvin from 
the altar whence they had cast down the images 
and the tapers. 

There was great rejoicing in Boston when a swift- 
sailing schooner brought news of the victory of 
which the anxious communities at home were be- 
ginning to despair. Commodore Warren had sent 
home two prisoners some weeks before, one the 
commander of a battery without the walls of Louis- 
bourg, the other, captain of a captured ship ; and 
these men had given descriptions of the strength of 
the fortress, which made New England tremble for 
its little army. But now bells were rung, cannon 
fired, and tumultuous crowds added their voices in 
a general shout of rejoicing. 

In England the report that such a stronghold had 
been taken by an untrained army of provincials could 
hardly be believed. Sir Peter Warren, the naval 
commander, acknowledged the services of the colo- 
nists but grudgingly ; and though it was the most 



i64 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1745. 

brilliant success the English achieved during the war, 
English historians scarcely mention it. Voltaire, 
however, calls the capture of Louisbourg one of the 
most remarkable events of the reign of Louis XV. 

General Pepperell was made a baronet for his 
share in the enterprise, while Governor Shirley re- 
ceived a commission in the regular army, and after- 
ward held the chief military command in America. 
Colonel Vaughan Vv^ent to England to present his 
claims, but failed to receive any reward for his ser- 
vices, and died in London in obscurity and neglect. 

The capture of Louisbourg led to a project on the 
part of the English authorities to conquer Canada, 
and one by the French to recover Cape Breton and 
Acadia, and devastate the New England coast. 
Governor Shirley wrote to the British ministry, 
urging measures for the conquest of Canada, and in 
response the Secretary of State sent orders to the 
governors of the colonies, as far south as Virginia, 
to raise as many men as possible, and have them 
ready for action. A squadron of ships and some 
land forces were to be sent to Louisbourg, and there 
met by the New England troops, when the united 
force was to ascend the St. Lawrence to Quebec. 
At the same time the soldiers from New York and 
the southern colonies were to assemble at Albany 
for the capture of Crown Point and Montreal. 



1746.] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 165 

The colonial troops were readily raised, to the 
number of about eight thousand men, and waited 
for the fleet. But no fleet came. When the season 
was so far advanced that all hopes of its arrival were 
given up, it was thought best to employ the troops 
ordered to Albany in an attack on Crown Point ; and 
the Iroquois as usual were found willing to join in 
the undertaking. The New England troops were 
ordered to Acadia, on the sudden intelligence that 
the inhabitants were on the eve of revolt, and that 
Annapolis was threatened by a body of French and 
Indians. 

During the same season a large fleet had been 
gathered at Brest for the capture of Louisbourg, 
Annapolis, and Boston ; and the Canadians and 
their Indian allies were to be ready to cooperate 
with the fleet by land. Six hundred Canadians, 
therefore, repaired to Acadia in June, and the Mic- 
macs and Malicites rallied once more under the 
banners of France. This force was waiting at 
Chignecto in September for the arrival of the fleet, 
when the Governor of Canada, having heard that 
the New England forces were about to embark for 
Acadia, sent orders to Ramezay, their commander, 
to bring them back to Quebec. But as Ramezay 
was about to go, he learned that the French fleet 
had arrived in the harbor of Chebucto, now Halifax. 



i66 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1746. 

This intelligence, which was received by Rame- 
zay's men with great rejoicing, and had filled New 
England with consternation, was not so important 
as it seemed. The fleet which had started from 
France on the 22d of June, under the command of 
the Due d'Anville, comprised forty ships of war, 
with transports carrying more than three thousand 
soldiers and all kinds of military stores. It was 
the largest armament that had ever been sent to 
American shores. But a tempest had scattered the 
ships soon after they set sail, many of them were 
compelled to return, and when the Due d'Anville 
reached Chebucto he had only three of his war-ships 
and a few transports left. An infectious fever was 
rapidly disabling the soldiers that remained, and on 
the 1 6th of September, a few days after the arrival, 
D'Anville himself suddenly died, not without sus- 
picion of poison. 

More ships having arrived, the officer next in com- 
mand, Vice-Admiral d'Estournelle, proposed in a 
council of ofiflcers that the undertaking should be 
abandoned ; for some ships which were to join them 
from Hispaniola had failed, their own ships were 
scattered, and twenty-four hundred of their men had 
died of the fever. Three ships from Hispaniola had 
been to Chebucto, but had returned to France on 
faihng to find D'Anville's fleet. The abandonment 



1746.1 KING GEORGE'S WAR. 167 

of the expedition was violently opposed by the 
officers, headed by Jonqui^re, who had been lately 
appointed Governor of Canada and was next in 
command, and D'Estournelle, excited by the op- 
position, took the fever, and in a fit of delirium 
killed himself with his own sword. 

Jonquiere resolved to attack Annapolis with the 
forces that were left ; but when they arrived off 
Cape Sable, another storm still further disabled 
the ships, and news was brought the commander 
that Louisbourg and Annapolis were both defended 
by English ships. So the French vessels could do 
nothing but return to Brest. 

Ramezay, with his Canadian and Indian followers, 
went into winter quarters at Chignecto, where his 
presence was a constant menace to Annapolis. 
Mascerene, commander of the garrison there, sent 
to Boston for troops, and five hundred men were 
accordingly despatched in December, and on their 
arrival were stationed at Grand Pre, near the River 
Gaspereaux in the district of Minas. 

Ramezay determined to send a force against 
them, and in January, 1747, about four hundred ^ 
Canadians and Indians set out, under an officer 
named De Villiers. For two weeks they travelled 
on snow-shoes and dragged their supplies on sledges 
along the wintry coast. The New England officers 



i68 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1747. 

had some warning of the danger ; but, supposing 
the enemy to be isolated by the season, they paid 
no attention to it. 

On the lOth of February the French arrived in a 
dense storm of snow, which prevented them from 
being seen by the sentries. They had accurate in- 
formation from the inhabitants of Grand Pre, and 
ten houses where the officers were lodged were 
selected for the first attack. There was a desper- 
ate resistance, but the New England soldiers were 
under too great disadvantage ; sixty were killed, 
including the chief officer, Colonel Arthur Noble, 
and sixty-nine were made prisoners. The French 
lost but seven killed and fourteen wounded. Those 
of the English who remained could not escape, 
having no snow-shoes ; a capitulation was at length 
agreed upon, and they returned to Annapolis under 
a promise not to bear arms in Minas and adjoining 
districts for six months. 

After Jonqui^re returned to France, another fleet 
was prepared to carry troops to Canada and Nova 
Scotia, and placed under his command. He set 
sail in May, 1747, with six ships of war and some 
transports, accompanied by six merchant-ships and 
a frigate bound for the East Indies. An English 
fleet under Admirals Anson and Warren set out in 
pursuit, and a battle was fought off Cape Finisterre 



1747] A'lXG GEORGE'S WAR. 169 

on the 3d of May, which resulted in a complete 
victory for the English. They took six ships of 
war and all the merchantmen, with over four 
thousand prisoners. The captured treasure was 
afterward taken to the Bank of England in twenty 
wagons. 

The people on the western frontier had been 
somewhat disturbed by French and Indian bands 
during the progress of the war. Rumford, now 
Concord, New Hampshire, was unsuccessfully at- 
tacked in 1746, and Fort Massachusetts, in Wil- 
liamstown, was taken by a large party in the same 
year. Fort Number Four on the Connecticut was 
assailed by a large band in 1747, but was bravely 
and successfully defended by a garrison under Cap- 
tain Phineas. The village of Saratoga was de- 
stroyed, and the inhabitants, thirty families in all, 
were slaughtered. 

Nothing was done in America this year by the 
English, though the colonists believed that a reason- 
able amount of aid from England would enable 
them to bring all Canada under British sway. It 
was said that English statesmen thought the col- 
onies, if their strength were revealed to them by 
such a conquest, and if the fear of French inroads 
from the north were removed, might be tempted 
to assert their independence ; particularly as they 



lyo KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1748. 

were growing restive under some of the exactions 
and restrictions imposed upon them. However 
that may be — whether EngHsh statesmen foresaw 
the events that were to occur within thirty years, or 
whether they had simply not awakened to the im- 
portance of their colonial possessions in America — 
not only was nothing done to reduce Canada, but 
Louisbourg was restored to France, much to the 
chagrin of the colonists who were so proud of its 
capture. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which put 
an end to the war, October 18, 1748, gave up Louis- 
bourg for Madras, which the French had taken, and 
left the boundaries of French and English territory 
in America as undefined as they had been under 
former treaties. 

Parliament agreed to pay to the colonists all the 
expenses they had incurred for the war, and in 
1749 two hundred and fifteen chests of Spanish 
dollars and one hundred casks of copper coin were 
sent from England to Boston. This money, which 
amounted to about a million dollars, was carried to 
the treasury on twenty-seven carts and trucks. 



CHAPTER X. 

ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 

Failure of Negotiations for the Adjustment of Boundaries — Encroach- 
ments of the French — Settlement of Halifax — Refusal of the 
Acadians to Take the Oath — Attacks by Indians — Burning of Beau- 
bassin — Fort Lawrence — Fort Beau Sejour — Colonel How's Fate 
— Expedition to Acadia— Fall of the French Forts — Escape of La 
Loutre — Exile of the Acadians. 

During the nominal peace which followed the 
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the representatives of 
the two governments were anxiously engaged in at- 
tempting to settle by actual occupation the question 
of boundaries, which was still left open by that 
treaty. It professed to restore the boundaries as 
they had been before the war ; and before the war 
the entire basin of the Mississippi, as well as the 
tract between the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, the 
Bay of Fundy, and the Kennebec, was claimed by 
both nations, with some show of reason, as no con- 
vention between them had ever defined the rights 
of each. Names had been given to vast tracts of 
land whose limits were but partly defined, or at one 
time defined in one way, at another time in another, 
and when these names were mentioned in treaties 



172 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [i749- 

they were understood by each party according to its 
own interest. The treaty of 1748, therefore, not 
only left abundant cause for future war, but left oc- 
casion for the continuance of petty border hostilities 
in time of nominal peace. Commissioners were ap 
pointed, French and English, to settle the question 
of the disputed territory, but the differences were 
too wide to be adjusted by anything but conquest. 

While the most important question was that of 
the great extent of territory at the west, and, as 
we shall hereafter see, both nations were devising 
means for establishing their claims to it, Acadia, or 
Nova Scotia, was the scene of a constant petty war- 
fare. The French were determined to restrict the 
English province to the peninsula now known by 
that name. The Governor of Canada sent a few men 
under Boishebert to the mouth of the St. John's to 
hold that part of the territory. A little old fort 
built by the Indians had stood for fifty years on the 
St. John's at the mouth of the Nerepis, and there 
the men established themselves. A larger number 
was sent under La Corne to keep possession of Chig- 
necto, on the isthmus which, according to French 
claims, formed the northern boundary of English 
territory. 

In all the years that England had held nominal 
rule in Acadia, not a single English settlement had 



1 749-] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 173 

been formed, and apparently not a step of progress 
had been taken in gaining the loyalty of the inhab- 
itants. A whole generation had grown up during the 
time ; but they were no less devoted to France than 
their fathers had been. It was said that the King 
of England had not one truly loyal subject in the 
peninsula, outside of the fort at Annapolis. When 
the inhabitants did not choose to obey the orders of 
the English authorities, they represented themselves 
as being under fear of the Indians ; and the Indians 
were constantly urged to their share in the proceed- 
ings by the persuasions and inducements of the 
priests and emissaries of the Canadian Government. 
No doubt, also, the bond of religion was the strong- 
est influence that held the Acadians faithful to 
France. 

Among the schemes suggested for remedying this 
state of affairs, was one by Governor Shirley, to 
place strong bands of English settlers in all the im- 
portant towns, in order that the Government might 
have friends and influence throughout the country. 
Nothing came of this ; but in 1749 Parliament voted 
forty thousand pounds for the purpose of settling a 
colony. Inducements were offered to discharged 
soldiers and sailors, and to farmers and mechanics 
to join the colony. They were to be carried over 
free, to be furnished with fanning and fishing im- 



174 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1749. 

plements, and to be maintained free of expense for 
one year. Grants of land were offered also, privates 
from the army and navy were to receive fifty acres 
each, and officers more, according to their rank. 
No quit-rents were to be required for the first ten 
years. Twenty- five hundred persons being ready to 
o-o in less than two months from the time of the 
first advertisement, the colony was entrusted to 
Colonel Edward Cornwallis (uncle of the Cornwallis 
of the Revolutionary War), and he was made Gov- 
ernor of Nova Scotia. Chebucto was selected as the 
site of the colony, and the town was named Halifax 
in honor of the president of the Lords of Trade and 
Plantations. Within four months a clearing was 
made, and three hundred houses were built. 

In July, a council was held at Halifax, when Gov- 
ernor Cornwallis gave the French deputies a paper 
declaring what the Government would allow to the 
French subjects, and what would be required of 
them. They were to be left in peaceable possession 
of their property and the free exercise of their re- 
ligion, provided they should take the oath of allegi- 
ance to the British Government, submit to its laws, 
and give all possible countenance and assistance to 
settlers who should be sent out under his Majesty's 
orders. To this the people replied by their depu- 
ties, asking that they might enjoy the privileges 



1749] ACADIA AFTER THE JVAR. 175 

mentioned, under condition of taking a qualified 
oath, one that should exempt them from bearing 
arms in case of war, even in defence of their own 
province. Such an oath had been allowed in certain 
cases twenty years before ; and the precedent was 
urged at this time. They wished to stand as neu- 
trals, and, indeed, were often called so. 

Cornwallis replied that nothing less than entire 
allegiance would be accepted. Then the deputies 
asked if they might sell their property and leave 
the peninsula, and were told that the Treaty of 
Utrecht gave them a year in which to withdraw from 
the province with their effects, if they preferred that 
to becoming subjects of Great Britain ; but that 
now there was no alternative but confiscation or en- 
tire allegiance. About a month later the people 
sent in a declaration with a thousand signatures, 
stating that they had resolved not to take the oath, 
but were determined to leave the country. Corn- 
wallis took no steps to coerce them, but wrote to 
England for instructions. 

A treaty was made between the Governor and the 
chiefs of the Indians in July ; but on the occasion 
of the building of a block-house by the English at 
Minas, the Indians were instigated to violate the 
treaty, and attacks were made by them on Canso 
and Minas, and some vessels in the harbor of Chig- 



176 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1750. 

necto. It was supposed that the missionary priest 
La Loutre was at the bottom of all the trouble with 
the Indians and much of the disloyalty of the Aca- 
dians ; one means of coercion was always at his 
service, the refusal of the sacraments to the disobe- 
dient. 

In the following year Cornwallis sent four hundred 
men, under Major Lawrence, to Chignecto to build 
a block-house. A little river called the Messagouche 
was claimed by the French as their southern boun- 
dary ; and a force under La Corne had been keeping 
possession of the isthmus. On the southern bank 
was a prosperous village called Beaubassin, and La 
Corne had compelled its inhabitants to take the oath 
of allegiance to the King of France. When Law- 
rence arrived, all the inhabitants of Beaubassin, about 
one thousand, having been persuaded by La Loutre, 
set fire to their houses, and leaving behind the fruits 
of years of industry, turned their backs on their fer- 
tile fields, and crossed the river, to put themselves 
under the protection of La Corne's troops. Many 
Acadians from other parts of the peninsula also left 
their homes, and lived in exile and poverty under 
the French dominion, hoping for a speedy change 
of masters in Nova Scotia. 

Lawrence was obliged to abandon the work on 
which he had been sent, since La Corne had a very 



I750.] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. i77 

large force at his command ; but later in the season 
he went again to Chignecto with a larger body of 
troops. Their landing was opposed by a band of 
Indians assisted by some of the Acadians, intrenched 
behind the dikes, and in the assault six English- 
men were killed and twelve wounded. This was 
the first blood shed since the peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle. Lawrence's men proceeded to build a 
fort on the south bank of the Messagouche, which 
was called Fort Lawrence, and garrisoned by six 
hundred men. 

In the same year a large French fort, Beau Sejour, 
was built on the northern side of the Messagouche, 
and a smaller one, Gaspereaux, at Baie Verte. 
Other stations were also planted, forming a line of 
fortified posts from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the 
mouth of the St. John's. An instance of the treach- 
ery of La Loutre about this time is recorded. Cap- 
tain Edward How, an officer well known to the 
country and the Indians, was sent to Fort Lawrence 
by the Governor, that he might use his influence to 
keep the Indians peaceful. He sometimes met 
French officers on the Messagouche with flags of 
truce, and messages were in that way sent between 
the forts. La Loutre dressed an Indian like a 
French officer, and sent him down the river with a 
flag of truce, and Captain How came unsuspiciously 



178 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1754. 

to meet him, when some Indians who were con- 
cealed on the bank arose and shot him dead. 

The Acadians made repeated attempts to induce 
CornwaUis to allow them to take the qualified oath, 
threatening to leave the province and to neglect 
sowing their fields. CornwaUis seems to have treat- 
ed them with mildness and consideration, but was 
firm in his refusal to take less than an oath of full al- 
legiance. Many of those who had exiled themselves 
asked permission to return, but through the influ- 
ences brought to bear upon them by the French, 
declined to fulfil the conditions required. La Loutre 
told them that if they returned and yielded allegi- 
ance they should be allowed neither priests nor 
sacraments, and as he was Vicar-General for Acadia 
under the Bishop of Quebec, he probably had power 
to make good his threat. 

In the following years, the Acadians refused to 
bring supplies to the English forts, even at their 
own prices, and in 1754 three hundred of them 
went to work at Fort Beau Sejour, refusing the 
offer of employment on government works at Hali- 
fax. Their rebellious conduct was imitated by some 
Germans lately settled at Lunenburg, and the Gov- 
ernor was obliged to send soldiers to subdue them. 

The commission appointed to settle the question 
of boundaries had broken up without accomplishing 



1755- ] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 179 

any results ; and it was resolved by the authorities 
in Nova Scotia and Massachusetts that an expedi- 
tion should be sent against Fort Beau Sejour. The 
enterprise was planned by Governor Shirley and 
Colonel Lawrence, then in command in Nova Sco- 
tia. Great care was taken to keep the matter se- 
cret, that the garrison might be taken completely 
by surprise. Arms and boats had been taken from 
the Acadians ; and during the summer, when it was 
rumored that a French fleet had arrived in the Bay 
of Fundy, they offered memorials to the council, 
asking for the restoration of their arms, and exemp- 
tion from the oath. This was refused ; and the dep- 
uties, on again declining to take the oath, were 
ordered into confinement. 

The Governor then issued orders to all the French 
inhabitants to send in new deputies, who should ex- 
press their final intentions w^ith regard to the oath ; 
warning them that any who now refused would not 
thereafter be allowed to take it, " but that effectual 
measures ought to be taken to remove all such rec- 
usants out of the province." Deputies were sent 
in representing over five hundred of the inhabitants ; 
all refused to take the required oath, and were or- 
dered into confinement. It had been determined to 
expel the people from the province in case they 
should refuse, '* and," says the record of the council, 



l8o ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1755. 

*' nothing now remained to be considered but what 
measures should be taken to send them away, and 
where they should be sent to." 

Meantime, Massachusetts had raised about two 
thousand troops for the contemplated enterprise, 
who were under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel 
John Winslow. To this force were added about 
three hundred regulars, and the whole was placed 
under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Monck- 
ton. They reached Chignecto on the 2d of June, 
and the following day encamped about Fort Law- 
rence. De Vergor, commander at Beau Sejour, had 
neglected to take measures for strengthening his 
position, though some rumors of the intended attack 
had reached him. Now, however, having quite a 
large force at his disposal, consisting of a hundred 
and sixty-five soldiers, and several hundred Aca- 
dians who had obeyed the summons to come into 
the fort, he set to work to complete the defences. 

On the 4th the English began by attacking the 
block-house at Pont-5.-Buot, some miles east of Beau 
Sejour, and took it in an hour, the French running 
away in a panic and setting fire to the block-house 
and all the houses they passed on their flight to the 
fort. Several days were consumed by Monckton's 
men in making a bridge over the river and cutting 
a road by which to carry their cannon to an emi- 



1755] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. l8l 

nence north of the fort. Small parties had been 
sent from the fort to interrupt them, but without 
effecting anything. On the 13th their cannon were 
in place, and the attack began. The next day De 
Vergor received an answer from Louisbourg, whither 
he had sent for reenforcements, that no men could 
be spared, owing to a threatened assault from an 
English squadron. 

De Vergor and his officers tried to conceal this in- 
telligence from the Acadians at the fort, w^ho had 
been led to believe that certain help was to come 
from Louisbourg ; but it was rumored about among 
them, and many of them., on De Vergor's refusal to 
dismiss them, escaped from the fort in the night. 
On the i6th the mortars were in position, and the 
shells made such havoc in the fort that De Vergor re- 
solved to surrender. The terms were soon arranged, 
and Monckton took possession the same evening. 
The garrison were allowed to leave with their arms, 
to be sent to Louisbourg, under promise not to bear 
arms in America for six months. The Acadians 
who had been forced to take up arms were granted 
a general amnesty. Many of them had asked De 
Vergor, when they were summoned to the fort, to 
threaten them with death unless they complied. 

La Loutre, since none of the terms of the capitu- 
lation would apply to him, fearing the vengeance 



i82 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1755. 

of the English, escaped in disguise, and made his 
way through the wilderness to Quebec. Here the 
Bishop, who had not approved of his course in 
Acadia, reproached him with having neglected re- 
ligion for politics. As he was without a home, 
friends, position, or influence in the New World, he 
embarked for France ; but the vessel was captured 
by an English ship, and the Abbe La Loutre was 
imprisoned on the Island of Jersey till the close of 
the war. He came out, to find not only Acadia, 
but all of Canada and the Ohio basin, irretrievably 
lost to France. 

After Beau S6jour, the smaller forts were quickly 
reduced. Some vessels sent to the mouth of the 
St. John's found the French fort deserted and 
burned. The name of Beau Sejour was changed to 
Cumberland. 

The Government had now determined to carry 
out the threat of expelling the Acadians from the 
peninsula. No doubt some justification for this act 
may be found in the long course of provocations 
given by them since they had been under English 
rule. They had steadily refused to take the oath of 
allegiance to England, and had claimed the position 
of neutrals. Had they maintained this position, it 
is quite probable that the authorities would have 
allowed them to keep it undisturbed ; but they had 



I755-] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 183 

repeatedly abandoned it in favor of the French. On 
every occasion when the French seemed about to 
regain their supremacy they gave them open aid ; 
and at other times they looked on with indiffer- 
ence, if not with applause, at the barbarities of the 
Indians against the English. And now, when the 
two countries were evidently on the eve of war, it 
was perhaps excusable in the dominant power that 
it should take measures to rid itself of an enemy 
within its own territory. Yet the exile of the Aca- 
dians remains one of the saddest incidents of history, 
and by almost universal consent is branded as a 
crime. The simple and pastoral character of the 
people is dwelt upon ; and it is probable that the 
mass of them would have been innocent of hostile 
actions if they had been deprived of a few of the 
priests and leaders who were constantly inciting 
them against the English. 

It was decided to distribute the Acadians among 
the various English colonies, in order that they 
might not go to strengthen the settlements of 
Canada. It was necessary to assemble them with- 
out letting them know the object for which they 
were called together, and then detain them un- 
til the transports were ready to take them away. 
They were to be allowed to carry with them their 
ready money and their household goods ; all their 



l84 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1755. 

Other effects were to be declared forfeit to the 
Crown. 

Arrangements were made for collecting the inhab- 
itants at several places in different districts. At 
Chignecto and Annapolis the design was suspected, 
and most of the people escaped. Their houses were 
burned down, and as many of the fugitives as could 
be collected were put on board the transports. 
Winslow, who had charge of the business at Grand 
Pre in the district of Minas, was most successful. 
A proclamation was issued ordering all, *' both old 
men and young men, as well as all the lads of ten 
years of age, to attend at the church of Grand Pr6, 
on Friday, the 5th instant, at three of the clock in 
the afternoon, that we may impart to them what we 
are ordered to communicate to them." No excuse 
would be accepted for failure to attend ; but goods 
and chattels would be forfeited by disobedience, in 
default of real estate. 

At three o'clock on Friday, the 5th of Septem- 
ber, four hundred and eighteen men assembled in 
the church at Grand Pr6, unsuspicious of the object 
for which they were summoned. The doors were 
closed and guarded, and the men were then ad- 
dressed by Winslow, who told them : 

"You are called together to hear his Majesty's 
final resolution in regard to you. For almost half a 



1755.] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 185 

century you have had more indulgence granted to 
you than any of his subjects in any other part of his 
dominions, though what use you have made of the 
indulgence you yourselves best know. The duty 
which is laid on me, though necessary, is very dis- 
agreeable to my natural make and temper, as I know 
it must be grievous to you. His Majesty's orders 
and instructions are, that your lands and tenements, 
cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are 
forfeited to the Crown, with all your other effects, 
saving your money and household goods ; and you 
yourselves are to be removed from the province. I 
am, through his Majesty's goodness, directed to 
allow you to carry away your money and household 
goods, so far as you can without discommoding the 
vessels you are to go in." He promised that fami- 
lies should be kept together, and that he would 
make the removal as easy for them as possible. 

The blow was sudden and terrible ; they could not 
believe at first that it was anything but a threat. 
When they became convinced that it was really in- 
tended to tear them from their homes and scatter 
them among strange people, and that the guard 
made escape impossible, they begged to be allowed 
at least to go out and prepare for removal, offering 
to leave a number as hostages. Winslow thought it 
would not be safe to permit them to go out in a 



i86 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1755. 

body ; but he allowed ten to go at a time. After- 
ward, seeing some movements he thought suspicious 
among them, he was obliged to refuse even that 
privilege. It was decided to remove the men to 
the vessels in the harbor, and keep the women and 
children on shore until the transports should arrive 
to carry them away. The men were so reluctant to 
obey the order to march to the ships that the sol- 
diers had to drive them with their bayonets. The 
women and children crowded along the way, kneel- 
ing and praying, while the men marched past them 
singing hymns. Those left behind were kept near 
the shore, with insufficient food and clothing, for 
more than a month. Twenty-four young men es- 
caped from the ships ; but all but two of them re- 
turned, rather than stay behind and be separated 
from their families. 

On the loth of October the transports arrived ; 
and care was taken to bring families together ; but 
in the confusion they were separated in many cases. 
The number of those thus exiled has sometimes 
been placed at seven thousand. This is the estimate 
of the number that would have to be removed 
which was given by Colonel Lawrence when the 
scheme was first proposed, and probably includes 
nearly the whole population of the peninsula. 
More than three thousand escaped to the country 



I755-] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 187 

about the Bay of Chaleurs, some went to Quebec, 
and some took refuge with the Indians ; so that 
the whole number of those removed by the English 
did not exceed three thousand. 

The houses and barns left by the exiles were 
burned to the ground. The cattle and horses were 
seized as spoils by the officers. The dikes which the 
people had raised against the ocean, enclosing some 
of the most fertile lands in the whole region, were 
left to go to ruin, and the ocean broke over the de- 
serted fields. The exiles were scattered throufrh 
the British colonies, some as far south as Georgia. 
They became a charge upon the public, and even 
the support of paupers was grudgingly allotted them. 
A bill is on record which was sent in for the support 
of " three French pagans," and they were sent from 
town to town on one and another pretext, while 
their children were taken from them at the option 
of the town authorities. They clung with unfailing 
constancy to their own religion ; and this, by keep- 
ing them a separate people among their captors, no 
doubt contributed much to the feeling against 
them. Yet instances are on record where their 
complaints were listened to and redress granted by 
the authorities, and where private generosity took 
pity on their sorrows. 

Some of those who were sent to Georgia escaped 



l88 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1755. 

to the ocean in boats and went coasting along the 
shore, in hopes to reach their native country ; but 
they were stopped and detained on the coast of 
New England by orders from the authorities in 
Nova Scotia. One small colony went to Guiana. 
Some found their way to France ; and two villages 
near Bordeaux are said to be inhabited by their de- 
scendants. Some planted settlements in Louisiana 
in the districts of Attakapas and Opelousas, where 
they and their descendants went for a long time 
under the name of " Cajeans. " 

Longfellow's poem '* Evangeline" is founded on 
the removal of the inhabitants of Grand Pre. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE OHIO VALLEY. 

French Posts in the West — Ogdensburg — Sir William Johnson — 
Conference with the Iroquois — Expedition of Bienville — The 
Walking Purchase — The Ohio Company — Christopher Gist — Ind- 
ian Conference at Logstown — French Attack on Picqua — Expe- 
dition from Canada — Mission of George Washington — Fort Du 
Quesne — Fight with Jumonville — Fort Necessity — Fight at Great 
Meadows — Fort Cumberland — Council at Albany. 

The establishment of French forts and trading- 
posts at various points in the West has already 
been spoken of. Fort Frontenac at the head of the 
St. Lawrence, Fort Frederick at Crown Point on 
Lake Champlain, Fort Niagara at the mouth of the 
Niagara, and the posts at Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, 
Mackinaw, Chicago, and on the Maumee, the Wa- 
bash, and the Mississippi, formed a line of French 
stations, and supplied communication between the 
East and the Southwest. Missions and trading- 
houses were scattered through the regions of the 
lakes and the great rivers, at points favorable for 
trade and navigation ; and one French adventurer, 
as early as 1731, had carried a line of trading- 
posts one hundred leagues beyond Lake Winnipeg, 
and built Fort de la Reine on the Assiniboin. After 



1 90 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1749. 

the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the attention of both 
governments was drawn to the necessity of vigor- 
ous measures west of the AUeghanies. 

In 1749, the mission of La Presentation was 
established at Oswegatchie, on the present site of 
Ogdensburg, by a French priest, Father Francis 
Picquet. He hoped by means of it to effect what 
the French had labored so long to accomplish by 
diplomacy and flattery, by the missions to the Mo- 
hawks and Onondagas, to break up the friendship 
of the Iroquois for the English, and win them over 
to the French interest. Father Picquet was with an 
expedition that destroyed Fort Edward during King 
George's War, an enterprise which he had been the 
first to suggest. In 1748 he proposed to the Gov- 
ernor of Canada to found a settlement at Oswegatch- 
ie, a point which he thought most advantageously 
situated for intercepting the progress of the English 
and for influencing the Six Nations. He was di- 
rected to incite them to the destruction of Oswego, 
and thus secure to the French the uninterrupted 
control of the great highway along the lakes and 
their connecting waters. 

After much opposition, he established himself at 
Oswegatchie with soldiers and workmen, built a 
saw-mill, and soon had a palisaded fort and several 
other buildings, and some lands cleared on which to 



I750.] THE OHIO VALLEY. 191 

settle a colony of Indians. During the peace, the 
settlement grew rapidly ; in a few years there were 
three Indian villages gathered about the fort. At 
the visit of the Bishop of Quebec during the first 
year of the mission one hundred and thirty-two 
Indians were baptized. Picquet established a coun- 
cil from among the converts, and went w^ith the 
most influential of them on a visit to Montreal, 
where they took the oath of allegiance to the King 
of France. He made a canoe voyage around Lake 
Ontario and up its tributaries, examined the forts, 
spoke to gatherings of savages, and noted the de- 
fects of the French management of the Indian trade. 
His success with the Iroquois was so great that the 
savages of that region were nearly lost to England, 
and perhaps would have been entirely so, had it not 
been for the influence of WiUiam Johnson. 

This man came from Ireland and settled in the 
Mohawk Valley about 1738, taking charge of a large 
tract of land which had been granted to his uncle. 
Sir Peter Warren. He learned the language of the 
Mohawks, and became such a favorite with them 
that he was adopted into the tribe and chosen a 
sachem. They called him Warraghiyagey. He 
built two fortified houses, Johnson Hall and John- 
son Castle. The Hall is still standing in the village 
of Johnstown. The Castle, farther up the river, 



192 



THE OHIO VALLEY. [1748. 



was built of stone, with a parapet and four bas- 
tions. 

The Indians were always made welcome, and were 
treated by Johnson with great tact, as well as confi- 
dence and liberality ; sometimes, it is said, hun- 
dreds of them would lie down about him with their 
blankets after a feast, and go to sleep. A story is 
told which illustrates his sagacity. They had great 
respect for dreams ; when they saw anything at 
Johnson's place which they particularly coveted, 
they were accustomed to tell him that they dreamed 
he gave it to them. Johnson humored them until 
that kind of begging grew very troublesome, and 
then cunningly turned their faith in dreams to his 
own account. 

" I dreamed too," he said to a chief who had just 
taken possession of some coveted article. 
" What did you dream ? " 

Johnson told him he dreamed the tribe gave him 
a large tract of their hunting-ground. 

The chief and his warriors were confounded. 
"You must have it," they said, "if you dreamed 
it ; but don't dream any more." 

The Governor of New York made Johnson Colonel 
of the Six Nations, and in 1746 he was appointed 
Commissary of New York for Indian affairs, and 
in 1748 the command of all the soldiers of New 



1749-] THE OHIO VALLEY. 193 

York was given to him for the defence of the fron- 
tier. 

Commissioners from the several English colonies 
met the chiefs of the Iroquois in a conference at 
Albany. They agreed that they would allow no 
Frenchmen to settle on their lands, and that the 
English should negotiate with the French for the 
restoration of Iroquois prisoners ; and promised to 
use their influence to bring into the ** covenant 
chain " the tribes dwelling west of the Alleghanies. 
Those about Lake Erie and the Upper Ohio had 
been friendly to the English during the last war. 

The Governor of Canada, Count de la Galisso- 
niere, appointed in 1747, urged on the French minis- 
try the policy of sending out competent engineers to 
build forts from Detroit to the Mississippi, and to 
colonize the country west of the Alleghanies with 
large bodies of French peasantry. No movement 
was made toward carrying out this policy ; and all 
that Galissoniere could do was to send out men in 
1749 to take formal possession of the territory west 
of the Alleghanies, a movement which more effect- 
ually wakened the British colonies to the danger, 
without securing anything to the French which they 
had not held before. Celoron de Bienville was put 
in charge of three hundred men for the purpose, and 
was directed to take with him representatives of the 



194 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1749- 

western tribes friendly to the French, that they 
might seem to give their consent to the French 
claims, and also be influenced to drive English trad- 
ers out of the country. 

Bienville carried with him leaden plates which he 
was to bury at every important point along the Ohio 
and the lake shore, as far as Detroit. These plates 
were engraved with the arms of France and a Latin 
inscription. Following is a translation of the legend 
on one which fell into the hands of a Mohawk chief 
and was brought to Colonel Johnson's house by him 
for explanation : 

" In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, 
we, Celoron, commander of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Mar- 
quis de la Gahssoni^re, commander-in-chief of New France, for the 
restoration of tranquillity in some villages of Indians of these dis- 
tricts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and Tchad- 
akoin, the 29th of July, near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, 
as a monument of the renewal of possession which we have taken of 
the said River Ohio, and of all those that therein fall, and of all the 
land on both sides, as far as the sources of said rivers, as enjoyed, or 
ought to be enjoyed, by the preceding kings of France, and as they 
therein have maintained themselves by arms and by treaties, especially 
by those of Ryswick, of Utrecht, and of Aix-la-Chapelle." 

While the French were thus burying leaden 
plates, and decorating forest trees with the lilies of 
P>ance, and sending armed men into the Ohio Val- 
ley to expel English traders from the disputed 



1749-] THk OHIO VALLEY. 195 

lands, the English colonies were anxiously consider- 
ing the feasibility of forming settlements west of the 
AUeghanies. And while the colonists of the two 
nations were jealously watching each other, the Ind- 
ians were jealously watching them all. The burial 
of the leaden plates roused their indignation against 
the French, who, they were sure, were trying to 
steal their country away from them. And they 
watched with equal distrust the steady progress of 
the settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

The western slopes of the Alleghany Mountains 
were occupied by the Delawares and Shawnees, both 
of which nations had been conquered by the Iro- 
quois and were subject to those fierce warriors, who 
exacted from them a tribute and would not allow 
them to bear arms. The Delawares, who had origi- 
nally lived on the banks of the river which bears 
their name, sold parts of their land to William Penn, 
whose treatment of them was always humane and 
friendly ; and they remained on the lands they still 
retained in amicable relations with the settlers. But 
as the colony grew, and more lands were needed, 
the Delawares were crowded back. Old title-deeds 
were brought forward by the proprietaries, and new 
interpretations put upon them, making them cover 
great tracts of land never intended by the savages 
who gave them. 



196 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1737. 

One of these was called " the walking purchase." 
An old deed executed in the seventeenth century 
was brought forward in the eighteenth, and lands 
were claimed by right of it which the bewildered 
Delawares supposed they had reserved for them- 
selves. The land conveyed was to be a triangle 
bounded on one side by the Delaware River, on 
another side by one of its branches to the distance 
from its mouth that a man could walk in a day and 
a half, and on the third by a straight line drawn 
from the point reached by the walker back to the 
Delaware. Bringing forward this deed, the proprie- 
taries had a path cut along the margin of the creek, 
that there might be no obstructions or rough places 
in the way ; then they trained a man according to 
the most approved methods for pedestrians, and 
when he had walked his day and a half after his 
training, they drew the line, not directly eastward 
to the nearest point on the Delaware, but in a long 
slope to the northeast, forming the broadest possi- 
ble angle where it met the creek, and the narrowest 
possible where it met the river. 

The Delawares refused to obey the notice to quit, 
as they had no knowledge of any title to the lands 
but their own, acquired by ages of possession. The 
Pennsylvanians sent for the Iroquois to enforce their 
demand. The Iroquois despatched some chiefs to 



1748.] THE OHIO VALLEY. 197 

settle the affair, who took the side of the English, 
browbeat the poor Delawares most unmercifully, and 
ordered them to go either to Shamokin or Wyom- 
ing. The Delawares, afraid to disobey their con- 
querors, moved to Shamokin and Wyoming on the 
Susquehanna, and as the encroachments of settlers 
continued, many of them with the Shawnees passed 
on still farther west, until now they were living 
about the headwaters of the Ohio. Remembering 
with regret their home on the Delaware, and with 
anger their wrongful dispossession, they were pre- 
disposed to join the French against their former 
friends. 

In 1748, the Ohio Company was formed, for the 
purpose of planting settlements in the Ohio valley. 
It was composed of gentlemen of the provinces of 
Virginia and Maryland, and some in England. 
Among the stockholders were Lawrence and Au- 
gustine Washington, half-brothers of George. The 
King granted the company five hundred thousand 
acres of land west of the AUeghanies, south of the 
upper Ohio. It was designed to open a route from 
the settlements on the company's tract to the At- 
lantic coast, by connecting the headwaters of the 
Monongahela and the Youghiogheny with those of 
the Potomac, by short roads. 

The Company sent out Christopher Gist to ex- 



198 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1750. 

amine the country as far west as the Falls of the 
Ohio, to look out favorable sites for settlements and 
mark the passes of the mountains, the courses of 
the rivers, and the strength and disposition of the 
Indians. Gist found most of them disposed to be 
friendly to the English, but unwilling to commit 
themselves to an alliance until they could meet in a 
general council of all their nations. He and his 
men pushed on to the west, and were the first 
explorers of Southern Ohio. At Picqua, the chief 
city of the Miamis, they were invited to a council 
and promised the friendship of the nation. Some 
Ottawas came before the council broke up, with 
offers of amity from the French, but were sent away 
with the answer that the Miamis looked upon the 
English as their brothers and regarded as done to 
themselves all the hostile acts committed by the 
French against those brothers. Several English 
traders had been seized by order of the Governor of 
Canada and sent to the French fort at Otsanderket, 
or Sandusky. 

Having gone as far as Louisville, Gist returned by 
a more southerly route, ascending the Kentucky. 
He had been instructed to invite the Indians to 
a conference at Logstown, about seventeen miles 
down the Ohio from the site of Pittsburg. In 1752 
they came, and a treaty was made, the Indians 



1752.] THE OHIO VALLEY. 199 

agreeing not to molest settlements on the lands 
granted to the Ohio Company, but carefully avoid- 
ing any acknowledgment of the title of the English 
to the territory. The company built a station and 
made some roads, and a few settlers, among whom 
was Gist, went into the country and founded a 
colony between the Monongahela and the Youghio- 
gheny, beyond Laurel Point. 

In the summer of 1752, two Frenchmen led a 
party of over two hundred Indians against the Mia- 
mis, to force them to give up the six English traders 
among them and renounce the English alliance. 
Most of the warriors were away on a hunting-expe- 
dition ; but the King refused to give up the traders, 
and in the assault that followed they were bravely 
defended by the few who had remained at home. 
The Miamis were defeated, however, their captured 
King was killed and eaten, and the French flag was 
raised over the deserted fort. 

Most of the Indians of the West were ready to 
take up arms with the French ; and the Miamis 
urged the English to carry out the plan of building 
a fort on the Ohio. But the colonies could not or 
would not bear the expense ; and England did 
nothing, except to declare that the valley of the 
Ohio was a part of Virginia, and the encroachments 
of the French were to be regarded as acts of hostil- 



200 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1753. 

ity. A few guns sent over from the ordnance stores 
were all the substantial aid received. It was inti- 
mated that the militia of Virginia ought to be able 
to maintain her rights. 

The government of Canada was now under the 
Marquis Du Quesne, who determined to drive the 
English back from the Ohio, and for that purpose 
prepared a strong party of troops to establish posts 
on that river. Accompanied by a large force of 
Indians they ascended the St. Lawrence in the 
spring of 1753, and crossed the lakes to Presqu' Isle, 
on the site of Erie. A hunting-party of Iroquois on 
the banks of the St. Lawrence hastened to send the 
news to the grand council at Onondaga. Messen- 
gers were sent out to warn the Miamis and the other 
friends of the Iroquois in Ohio, and runners carried 
the intelligence to Colonel William Johnson on the 
Mohawk in forty-eight hours. The Ohio tribes sent 
envoys to Niagara and Presqu' Isle, warning the 
French not to invade their country ; but the French 
commander threw back the wampum belts before 
the faces of the envoys, and told them the land was 
his and he meant to have it. He established and 
fortified posts at Waterford, south of Erie, and at 
Venango, now Franklin, at the junction of French 
Creek with the Alleghany. 

When the news of these proceedings reached 



1753.] THE OHIO VALLEY, 201 

Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, determined to send a messenger to ask the 
French why they were invading the British domin- 
ions "while a soHd peace subsisted," and for his 
envoy he selected George Washington, then twenty- 
one years of age and Adjutant-General of the State 
militia. As a surveyor he had grown familiar with 
forest life and learned something of the ways of the 
Indians. He started on his mission late in October, 
with an interpreter, Christopher Gist as guide, and 
four other attendants. Passing the junction of the 
Alleghany and Monongahela, where he noted the 
military importance of the place, he pushed on to 
Logstown, and met some Delaware and Miami chiefs 
in council, who agreed to ally themselves with the 
English, if the French should still persist in their 
efforts to occupy the land. 

A part of the chiefs went on with Washington to 
Venango. The boasts of the officers there intimi- 
dated some of the Delawares, but the Half-King, 
chief of the Miamis, gave up the belt that symbol- 
ized his peace with the French. Washington was 
directed to proceed to Fort Le Boeuf, at Waterford, 
where he would find the commanding officer. Toil- 
ing slowly up the river through the snow and mud, 
crossing swollen streams by bridges which they made 
themselves of felled trees, the messengers arrived at 



202 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1753. 

the newly-built fort, surrounded by the bark-roofed 
log cabins that served as barracks for the soldiers, 
who were busily employed in making bark canoes 
and pine boats for the descent of the river. 

Legardeur de St. Pierre, the commander, received 
Washington with courtesy, but told him it was his 
business to take possession of the country, accord- 
ing to the orders of his superior, and that he purposed 
to do it to the best of his ability, and should seize 
every Englishman he found in the Ohio valley. As 
to the question of the rights of the two nations, it was 
not his place to discuss that ; but he would forward 
the message of the Governor of Virginia to the 
Governor of Canada. 

Having made the most of his opportunities for 
noting the numbers of the French and the strength 
and plans of their fortifications, Washington set out 
with his men to return. The difficulties of the way 
were increased by the advancing winter. When 
they came to the place w^here the horses were left, 
they found them so weak that they continued their 
way on foot. Washington was so anxious to get 
back that he and Gist left the circuitous route by 
way of the streams, and with a compass to guide 
them took a straight course for the fork of the 
rivers. Washington was twice in danger of his 
life. He was fired upon by a hidden Indian from 



1754] THE OHIO VALLEY. 203 

a distance of not over fifteen steps and narrowly 
missed. The Indian was taken, and Gist would 
have killed him, but Washington forbade it, and re- 
leased him. Again, after they had spent a day in 
making a raft, the raft was caught in the floating ice. 
Washington thrust out the setting-pole to stop it, 
and was thrown into the water, but saved himself 
by grasping one of the logs that formed the raft. 

The answer of St. Pierre led to prompt action by 
the Virginia authorities. It was determined to build 
a fort at the head of the Ohio, and ten thousand 
pounds were voted for the purpose by the Assem- 
bly. Other provinces were called upon for aid, but 
most of the burden fell upon Virginia. A company 
of thirty-three workmen, sent out in haste to begin 
the fort and hold the place before the French should 
arrive, had scarcely begun, when they were surprised 
by an army of six hundred French and Indians un- 
der Contrecoeur, and summoned to surrender. Of 
course there was no alternative ; they gave up the 
place and were allowed to retire. The date of the 
surrender, April 17th, 1754, is usually taken as the 
beginning of the " Old French War." 

Meanwhile a regiment of militia was hastily col- 
lected at Alexandria, and sent out under Colonel 
Joshua Fry, with Washington second in command. 
Washington went in advance with a part of the 



204 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1754. 

force early in April, and had reached Wills* Creek, 
near Cumberland, when he was met by the returning 
party from the head of the Ohio. He sent messen- 
gers to the Governors of Maryland, Virginia, and 
Pennsylvania, asking for reenforcements, and then 
went on without waiting for Colonel Fry with the 
remainder of the troops, intending to intrench him- 
self on the Monongahela at the mouth of Red Stone 
Creek and there await the reenforcements. He 
would then have been thirty-seven miles from the 
head of the Ohio. 

The French commander, Contrecoeur, set his men 
at work to finish the fortifications the English had 
begun, and named the place Fort Du Quesne, in 
honor of the Governor-General of Canada. More 
men soon arrived, and St. Pierre sent out a scout- 
ing party under Jumonville to meet the advance of 
the English. Hearing by messengers from the Half- 
King that this party was lurking in the woods, 
Washington stopped at a place called the Great 
Meadows. During the night he advanced, surprised 
the Jumonville party, and completely defeated 
them, after an action of fifteen minutes. Ten of 
the French, including Jumonville, were killed, and 
twenty-one, more than half of them, taken prison- 
ers. This action, which took place April 23d, 1754, 
was the first fighting of the war in the Ohio valley. 



1754] THE OHIO VALLEY. 205 

Washington had thrown up a hasty intrenchment 
at Great Meadows, in a little hollow between two 
hills covered with trees, and after the fight with 
Jumonville he strengthened the fortifications, and 
named the place Fort Necessity. While waiting for 
reenforcements, he employed his men in clearing a 
road toward Fort Du Quesne ; but hearing that a 
large body of the French were on the way to meet 
him, he fell back to his fort, where he was at- 
tacked on the 3d of July. The attacking party, con- 
sisting of six hundred French soldiers and a hundred 
Indians, was commanded by Villiers, who was re- 
solved to avenge the death of his brother, Jumon- 
ville. They took possession of one of the hills, and, 
sheltering themselves behind the trees, fired upon 
the English works below. Washington had but four 
hundred men, and a greatly inferior position ; but 
he and his men made a stubborn resistance, fighting 
bravely for nine hours. Then the French sounded 
a parley and offered terms. The fort was surren- 
dered, and the next day Washington's men, with 
their arms and baggage, retired to the east of the 
Alleghanies, according to the terms of the cap- 
itulation. The Americans lost thirty men in the 
action, and the French three. By this defeat the 
English flag was banished from the Ohio valley. 
Washington began works on Wills' Creek, which 



2o6 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1754. 

were afterward completed and named Fort Cumber- 
land. 

These hostilities led to remonstrances and pro- 
tests between the French and English governments. 
Each declared a desire for peace and reconcilia- 
tion, but war seemed inevitable, and both prepared 
for it. The English Government sent directions 
to the colonies to allow no encroachments by the 
French ; and the Governor of New York was directed 
to call a council of Iroquois chiefs and bind them 
to the English interests by conciliation and presents. 

A congress, therefore, assembled at Albany on 
June 19th, 1754, commissioners coming from all the 
colonies as far south as Maryland. Deputies from 
the Six Nations were also present. Gifts were 
scattered among them in great profusion, and they 
renewed their compact with the English ; but still 
there was widespread disaffection among them tow- 
ard their old allies. The French establishment at 
Oswegatchie had drawn off half the Onondagas, and 
the Mohawks were indignant at what they considered 
trespass on their lands by English surveyors. The 
chiefs boldly reproached the English with their in- 
action and the slow progress of their preparations. 
" Look at the French," said a Mohawk chief ; " they 
are men ; they are fortifying everywhere ; it is but 
one step from Canada hither, and they may easily 



I754-] THE OHIO VALLEY. 207 

come and turn you out of doors." The Iroquois 
claimed the lands occupied by the Delawares and 
Shawnoes, by right of their conquest of those na- 
tions. The Delawares and Shawnoes were still wa- 
vering, and might perhaps have been saved to the 
English, but the Pennsylvania agents took advan- 
tage of the assembling of Iroquois at the congress, 
and induced them to convey to themselves large 
tracts of land occupied by the conquered tribes. 
Those Indians heard of the transfer with great in- 
dignation, and were easily won over to the French. 

The council at Albany was memorable from the 
fact that it projected a confederacy of the Ameri- 
can colonies. Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from 
Pennsylvania, had made notes for a plan of union 
while on his journey to Albany, and when he arrived 
there he found that some of the other commission- 
ers had also thought out plans for the same pur- 
pose. Franklin's plan was substantially adopted, 
after much deliberation. Philadelphia was to be the 
seat of government. The President, or Governor- 
General, was to be appointed by the King, and was 
to have a veto power on all measures of the Grand 
Council. The Council was to be elected once in 
three years by the legislatures of the colonies, and 
to meet every year. The number of delegates from 
each colony was to vary from two to seven. General 



2o8 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1754. 

matters of war, trade, and taxes, were to be under 
the control of the Council. The plan was favored 
neither by the colonies, who thought it gave too 
much power to the President appointed by the 
Crown, nor by the Board of Trade in England, who 
rejected it on account of the power it gave to the 
people of the colonies ; but it foreshadowed the 
union of the Americans, which resulted in their 
independence less than thirty years later. 



CHAPTER XII. 

braddock's defeat. 

Plan of the English Ministry for Operations in America — Capture of 
Ships by Boscawen — Braddock's March — His Defeat — His 
Death — Effect of the Defeat — Washington — Alliances with the 
Indians. 

The English ministry now resolved upon a plan 
for attacking the French by four expeditions at 
about the same time, hoping to defeat them at every 
point where they had encroached on English claims, 
and drive them finally and forever from the dis- 
puted territory. The four expeditions were to move 
against the French in Acadia, at Fort Niagara, at 
Fort Du Quesne, and at Crown Point. The result 
of the operations in Acadia has already been de- 
tailed. The expedition assigned to the attack of 
Fort Niagara never reached its destination. That 
against Fort Du Quesne was most actively carried 
out, and most influential in its results. l. 

While these preparations were going on, England 
and France were nominally at peace. Both were 
sending troops to America, but both professed to 
be taking measures for defence only. In January, 



210 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. 

1755, negotiations passed between the two countries 
on the subject of the boundaries. France proposed 
that the Ohio valley be left as it was before the last 
war ; England proposed that it be left as it was at 
the Treaty of Utrecht in 171 3. Then France pro- 
posed that the territory between the Ohio and the 
Alleghanies be left neutral, by which she would 
then have had all north of the Ohio and far on to 
the west, while the neutral country would have kept 
back the English settlers. England then demanded 
that twenty leagues on each side of the Bay of 
Fundy should be added to the territory conceded 
by the French as belonging to Nova Scotia, and the 
country northward to the St. Lawrence be left 
neutral ; that the French forts at Crown Point and 
Niagara, and all those between the Alleghanies and 
the Wabash, should be destroyed. Of course, the 
French would make no such concessions ; but some 
show of negotiations was still kept up, while the 
warlike movements went on. 

Six thousand men had been sent out from Eng- 
land for service in America. They were under 
General Edward Braddock, who was made com- 
mander-in-chief of all the forces in North America, 
Governor Shirley and Sir William Pepperell to be 
associated with him as next in command. Braddock 
had been in service on the Continent, and his mili- 



1755.] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 2ii 

tary record was good. About three months after 
he sailed, a force of three thousand men was de- 
spatched from France to Canada, under Baron 
Dieskau. 

Admiral Boscawen was sent to the Banks of New- 
foundland to intercept the French squadron. Three 
of the French ships, the Lys, the Alcidc, and the 
Dauphin, were separated from the rest and enveloped 
in the fogs of the Newfoundland coast, and when 
the fogs cleared away, on the morning of the 8th of 
June, they found the English fleet close upon them. 
** Are we at peace or war?" asked the commander 
of the Alcide, In reply Boscawen commanded his 
men to fire, and after a short engagement the Lys 
and the Alcide struck their colors. The Dauphin 
escaped to the harbor of Louisbourg. This affair 
naturally excited great indignation in France, and 
the French ambassador at the English court was 
withdrawn. In England it was not disapproved of, 
although it had been steadily asserted that only 
defensive measures for the protection of the English 
frontiers were to be taken. 

Braddock arrived at Hampton Roads in February, 
1755. In April he called a conference of the gov- 
ernors of the provinces to meet him for the purpose 
of raising a common fund for carrying on the war ; 
but they were unable to pledge the support de- 



212 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. 

manded of them. Virginia, whose frontiers were in 
the greatest danger, was most zealous in rendering 
assistance, and later Franklin used his influence in 
Pennsylvania to supply the pressing want of horses 
and wagons. Colonel William Johnson, at the sug- 
gestion of Braddock, was asked to treat with the 
Six Nations and take charge of the expedition 
against Crown Point. The governors agreed to raise 
eight hundred pounds for presents to the Iroquois, 
and Johnson consented to negotiate the treaty, 
though reluctantly, on account of the carelessness 
the English had previously shown in regard to the 
observance of their agreements with the Indians. 

Braddock was full of confidence as to the result 
of his enterprise. He had great faith in himself, in 
"the King's regular troops," and in the tactics of 
war as he had learned them, great contempt for the 
provincials who were to serve in his army, and not 
the slightest suspicion that men who had spent their 
lives among the Indians could tell him anything of 
value about savage methods of warfare. He sent de- 
spatches to the English ministry, promising speedy 
success. To Franklin he said, " I shall hardly 
need to stop more than three or four days at Fort 
Du Quesne ; then I shall march on to Niagara, and 
from there to Frontenac." 

"To be sure, sir," answered Franklin, ** if you 



1755-] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 213 

arrive well before Du Quesne with those fine troops, 
so well provided with artillery, that place, not com- 
pletely fortified, and, as we hear, with no very 
strong garrison, can probably make but a short re- 
sistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruc- 
tion to your march is from ambuscades of Indians, 
who, by constant practice, are dexterous in laying 
and executing them ; and the slender line, near four 
miles long, which your army must make, may ex- 
pose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and 
to be cut like a thread into several pieces, which, 
from their distance, cannot come up in time to sup- 
port each other." 

Franklin says Braddock smiled at his ignorance, 
and answered, ** These savages may, indeed, be a 
formidable enemy to your raw American militia ; 
but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, 
sir, it is impossible they should make any impres- 
sion." He paid no attention to Washington's ad- 
vice that he should secure the aid of one hundred 
Indians under the interpreter Croghan, and treated 
them so scornfully that they withdrew in anger. 

The troops were all gathered at Fort Cumberland, 
on Wills' Creek. Braddock spent some weeks there 
in preparations, disciplining the provincial troops to 
make them as much like regulars as possible, and 
disgusted with his slender success. ** The American 



214 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. 

troops," he wrote in one of his letters, " have little 
courage or goodwill. I expect almost no military 
service from them, though I have employed the best 
ofificers to drill them." 

The wagons and horses procured by Franklin at 
last arrived, and on the 7th of June the army was 
ready to march. There were one thousand of Brad- 
dock's regular soldiers, twelve hundred of the pro- 
vincial militia, a few sailors, and a few Indians. 
Washington was made an aide-de-camp. Two com- 
panies from New York were under the command of 
Horatio Gates, afterward famous as the American 
commander at Saratoga ; one of the wagons was 
owned and driven by Daniel Morgan, destined to 
render important service in South Carolina during 
the Revolutionary War ; and there was Hugh Mer- 
cer, who was to fall at Princeton. Side by side 
with these future leaders of the American rebels 
was Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Gage, the future 
commander of the King's forces in their struggle 
with his rebellious subjects. 

Many of the French troops had been sent away 
from Fort Du Quesne ; but on the news of the 
English expedition reenforcements were summoned, 
and the slowness of Braddock's march gave them 
ample time to reach the fort. The route through 
Pennsylvania would have been much shorter than 



1 755-] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT, 215 

that through Virginia. But the former expedition 
of Washington had taken the route by way of Wills' 
Creek, and the shorter route seems scarcely to have 
been considered. Five hundred men had been sent 
forward the last day of May to open the road, and 
carry stores to Little Meadows. The rest of the 
army moved slowly, making only five miles in three 
days. 

Washington looked on with impatience, while 
Braddock insisted on moving exactly in accordance 
with the methods practised in European warfare. 
** We halted," he says, ** to level every mole-hill 
and bridge every brook, by which means we were 
four days in getting twelve miles." Even after the 
road had been widened by the advancing axe-men, 
it was almost impossible for the horses to drag the 
heavy wagons loaded with useless baggage through 
the miry ravines and over the rocks and stumps of 
trees, and they grew weak with the fatigue and the 
insufficient food afforded by the wild grass. After 
crossing the Great Savage Mountain, and toiling 
painfully through the thick gloom of the Shades of 
Death, the army reached Little Meadows, where * 
some attempt at fortification had been made by the 
five hundred axe-men. 

Here a council of war was held, and Washington's 
suggestion was adopted, that twelve hundred men 



2i6 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [i755- 

should be selected to push on in advance with the 
artillery and the lighter baggage. Braddock went 
on with the twelve hundred, leaving the remainder, 
with the heavy wagons, in charge of Colonel Dunbar. 
Even then the progress of the advance party was 
very slow, and it was not until the 8th of July that 
they arrived at the fork of the Monongahela and 
Youghiogeny rivers, twelve miles from Fort Du 
Quesne, where they encamped on a stream known 
as Crooked Run. Braddock had at first refused to 
send forward any Indians as scouts ; now it was with 
great difficulty that he could induce any of the few 
remaining with him to undertake the perilous task. 
Their march was haunted by the skulking allies of 
the French, who picked off stragglers and faith- 
fully reported every movement of the British army 
at Fort Du Quesne. 

Braddock's men were now on the same side of the 
Monongahela as the fort — that is, on the eastern 
side ; but a high rocky ridge very near the river on 
that side left such a narrow defile beside the stream, 
that the General thought best to cross at a ford 
near his camp, and, reaching a point above the nar- 
row defile, to recross at a second ford at the mouth 
of Turtle Creek, eight miles below the fort. Early 
on the morning of the 9th of July, the army crossed 
the upper ford, and marched splendidly down the 



I755-] BRADDOCK' S DEFEAT, 217 

river in their scarlet uniform, with drums beating 
and colors flying, the finest spectacle, Washington 
said long years afterward, that he had ever wit- 
nessed. 

At noon they recrossed the river, and entered a 
woody and hilly country cut through by three deep 
ravines, with seven miles yet to march. Gage led 
on a detachment through the narrow path, attended 
by the engineers with the workmen. 

Indian scouts had carried swift intelligence of 
the English advance to Fort Du Quesne, and Con- 
trecoeur, thinking it would be impossible to hold 
out against such an army, talked of retreat. But 
one of his captains, Beaujeu, advised sending out a 
party of soldiers and Indians to form an ambuscade, 
Contrecoeur consented, and the Indians were called 
together from their bark huts around the fort. 

Not one was willing to follow Beaujeu in the dan- 
gerous undertaking, and he gave it up for the time. 
Another invitation met with an answer no more fa- 
vorable ; but the third time, when he said, *' I am 
determined to go ; and will you let your father go 
alone?" a sudden enthusiasm seized them, and they 
were ready to follow. 

On the morning of the 9th, Beaujeu, Dumas, and 
Lignery led out more than eight hundred men, of 
whom six hundred were Indians. Amonr^ the Ind- 



2i3 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. 

ians was the chief Pontiac, afterward well known 
in American history. The English army was mov- 
ing on without a single scout to give warning of the 
danger, when it was suddenly confronted by the 
fantastic figure of Beaujeu in a fringed hunting-dress 
and wearing on his neck a silver gorget, closely fol- 
lowed down the hill by a multitude of white men 
and savages. Beaujeu gave the word of command, 
and the Indians dropped into the ravines and joined 
the French on the hill in a murderous fire on the 
British regulars, who, though bewildered by the 
hideous yells and shrieks that arose from the ra- 
vines, returned the fire, and Beaujeu was one of the 
first to fall dead. His loss dismayed the Indians, 
and they began to fly, but were rallied by Dumas, 
who sent them to attack the flanks of the English 
army, while the French soldiers kept up the fire in 
front. Hiding behind the trees, the Indians picked 
off the Englishmen with unerring aim. A reen- 
forcement was sent on by Braddock ; but the ad- 
vance party was driven back, leaving two of their 
pieces to the enemy, and meeting the reenforce- 
ments which were attempting to form, they became 
mingled and confused with them, and the entire 
force was thrown into disorder and unable to effect 
anything. 

Braddock pushed bravely forward, and rode hither 



1755] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 219 

and thither, issuing commands, and trying to in- 
spire his troops with his own courage. Four horses 
were shot under him, but again he mounted and 
again renewed his efforts. His officers were not 
outdone in bravery. Washington had two horses 
shot under him and his clothing torn by bullets ; 
Gates was shot through the body ; and only twen- 
ty three of the eighty-six officers escaped unhurt. 
Twenty-six were killed and thirty-seven wounded. 
But the English troops were panic-stricken ; they 
would not follow their officers ; they loaded their 
muskets and fired upon their own comrades, or into 
the empty air. The provincials, understanding bet- 
ter the methods of the Indians, maintained their 
self-control, and, stationing themselves behind trees, 
returned the fire in the Indian method from the 
cover. Washington urged Braddock to order all 
the men to fight in that way; but still the General 
could not see that there was any occasion for setting 
aside the rules of regular warfare. He drove the 
men out from their hiding-places, and insisted that 
they should form in platoons. At length he fell, 
mortally wounded, but continued to give orders as 
he lay bleeding on the ground. 

After three hours of such fighting, during which 
half the men were killed or wounded, the soldiers, in 
an uncontrollable panic, rushed back from the field 



220 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. 

and fled in confusion across the river, throwing 
away their arms. Braddock was carried from the 
field by some provincials. The enemy did not fol- 
low across the river, but returned to the field to 
secure the plunder. Braddock's orders brought his 
men to a stand, but they were too frightened to 
maintain it, and broke once more into a straggling 
retreat, and on the nth reached the reserves at the 
camp. The panic spread to Dunbar's men ; all the 
stores at the camp were destroyed, and the whole 
army fled helpless through the woods, and past the 
settlements toward Philadelphia. 

Braddock lay in a lethargy, rousing himself at 
times to give commands, and once murmuring, 
" Who would have thought it ? Who would have 
thought it ? " Shortly before he died, on the night 
of the 13th, he turned to his lieutenant and said, 
** We shall better know how to deal with them 
another time." The soldiers made his grave at 
Great Meadows, near Fort Necessity, where it still 
may be seen. The lower ford, where his army 
crossed to the fatal field, is known as Braddock's 
Ford. 

The news of this defeat carried dismay through 
the provinces. It left the frontier settlements of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia open and unprotected 
from the Indians ; and every unusual noise, even the 



1755.] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 221 

maudlin howl of a drunken man in the streets, was 
thought by the terrified inhabitants to be the deadly 
yell that heralded the tomahawk and the scalping- 
knife. In August, Washington was appointed Com- 
mander-in-Chief of all the forces of the colony. 
His conduct during Braddock's expedition had 
brought him to the favorable notice of the country, 
and attracted attention in England. He had, it is 
said, been marked by an Indian chief, who persist- 
ently aimed at him, and told some of his warriors 
to do the same. Failing to bring him down, they 
concluded that some powerful manitou was watching 
over his life. 

** I point out that heroic youth. Colonel Wash- 
ington," said a clergyman, Rev. Samuel Davis, in 
a sermon, "whom I cannot but hope Providence 
has preserved in so signal a manner for some im- 
portant service to his country." And Lord Hali- 
fax said, *' Who is Mr. Washington ? I know noth- 
ing of him but that they say he behaved in Brad- 
dock's action as if he really loved the whistling of 
bullets." 

One of the most disastrous results of the defeat 
was its effect upon the Indians. It inspired them 
with contempt for the English soldiers and respect 
for the military ability of the French. It decided 
the defection of the Dekiwares and Shawnoes, and 



222 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. 

incited them to petty ravages on the border. 
Scarooyadi, successor to the Half-King, refused to 
listen to French persuasions, and remained true to 
the English. He said the defeat was due to the 
"pride and ignorance of that great general that 
came from England. He is now dead ; but he was 
a bad man when he was alive. He looked upon us 
as dogs, and would never hear anything that was 
said to him. We often endeavored to advise him, 
and tell him of the danger he was in with his sol- 
diers ; but he never appeared pleased with us, and 
that was the reason that a great many of our war- 
riors left him." 

Washington was anxious to secure the aid of the 
Indians ; and Scarooyadi was willing to go out at 
once. " Let us unite our strength," said he. ** You 
are numerous, and the governors along the seashore 
can raise men enough ; but don't let those from 
over the seas be concerned any more. They are 
unfit to fight in the woods. Let us go out our- 
selves, we that came out of this ground." 

The Cherokees were also faithful to their friend- 
ship with the English colonies. Their chief pro- 
posed a conference with the Governor of South 
Carolina, notifying him of the attempts of the 
French and their allies to win over his nation. The 
Governor met the principal Cherokee warriors in 



1755] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 223 

their own country, two hundred miles from Charles- 
ton ; the alliance was renewed, and a large tract 
of land was ceded by the Cherokees to the colo- 
ny. Fort Prince George, three hundred miles from 
Charleston, was built on the ceded lands. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 

Expeditions under Shirley and Johnson — Shirley at Oswego — Move- 
ments of Dieskau — Building of Fort Edward — Advance of Dieskau 
— First Engagement — Fight at the Camp — Fight with Macginnis — 
Reward of Johnson — Erection of Fort William Henry— Fortifica-- 
tion of Ticonderoga — Hostilities on the Ocean — Plans for the En- 
suing Year. 

The third expedition designed to establish the 
supremacy of England in the American territory 
which she claimed as her own, was to advance under 
Governor Shirley to attack Fort Niagara ; and the 
fourth under Johnson to Fort Frederick at Crown 
Point. These two expeditions were to be com- 
posed of troops supplied by the northern colonies, 
and warriors of the Six Nations. In June nearly 
six thousand men were gathered at Albany. Among 
them were Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, who was 
to have so large a share in the deeds of the Revolu- 
tionary War ; John Stark, of New Hampshire, des- 
tined to make himself famous at Bennington and 
Saratoga ; and Ephraim Williams, of Massachusetts, 
who had just made a will at Albany by which he 



1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 225 

left a bequest to found the free school that is now 
Williams College. 

After capturing Fort Du Quesne, Braddock was 
to march northward and meet Shirley at Niagara. 
The fort there was in poor condition ; and Vau- 
dreuil, Governor of Canada, was anxious for its 
safety, having heard from Indians of the prepara- 
tions that were being made by the English. " The 
preservation of Niagara," he wrote to the French 
minister, ** is what interests us the most ; if our 
enemies should become masters of it and keep 
Chouaguen (Oswego), the Upper Countries would 
be lost to us, and besides we should have no more 
communication with the River Ohio." 

But there was no immediate danger of the Eng- 
lish becoming masters of Niagara ; the news of Brad- 
dock's defeat was received before the last of Shir- 
ley's men had started up the Mohawk. They were 
to ascend the river in bateaux, and the bateaux 
were to be managed by forest-rangers who had been 
gathered for the expedition. The news of the de- 
feat so frightened them that many deserted ; and 
when the army arrived at the carrying-place, at the 
head of the Mohawk, the men who were to trans- 
port the military stores by sledges also failed them. 
The soldiers were disheartened, Shirley was slow 
and irresolute, and they did not reach Oswego till 



226 BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE, [1755. 

the 2 1st of August. A month was passed in build- 
ing boats to take them across Lake Ontario ; and 
just as they were ready to embark, on the i8th of 
September, heavy rains and winds set in, and con- 
tinued with little intermission for three weeks. 
Most of the Indians and some of the soldiers de- 
serted, and sickness disabled many more. It was 
therefore decided that the attempt should be aban- 
doned until the following year, that Colonel Mercer 
should be left at Oswego with seven hundred men- 
and Governor Shirley should return to Albany with 
the rest. 

The French had designed to send their army under 
Baron Dieskau to take Oswego, expecting there- 
by to gain uninterrupted communication between 
their own forts, Frontenac and Niagara, at either 
end of Lake Ontario, and weaken the English in- 
fluence over the Iroquois ; and General Braddock's 
papers, which were captured, revealed the English 
plan of the campaign. Dieskau was about to start 
for Oswego with his army when information reached 
Montreal that Johnson's army was on its way toward 
Crown Point. Vaudreuil decided that it was of more 
importance to send the aid there than to attack 
Oswego ; and Dieskau reluctantly consented to the 
change of plan. The French force assembled at 
Crown Point consisted of seven hundred regular 



1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 227 

troops, sixteen hundred Canadians, and seven hun- 
dred Indians, about half of the Indians being con- 
verted Iroquois from the mission villages of Canada. 

The troops at Albany designed for Johnson's force 
were sent on early in July, under General Phinehas 
Lyman, and were occupied in building a fort on the 
eastern bank of the Hudson at the beginning of the 
portage to Lake George, which was named Fort 
Edward. On the 8th of August, Johnson set out 
from Albany with the artillery, bateaux, and pro- 
visions. He passed Fort Edward and encamped on 
the southern shore of Lake St. Sacrament, which he 
soon afterward named Lake George, in honor of 
George II. The camp was surrounded by woods 
and swamps on all sides except that which faced the 
lake. 

It was Johnson's intention to build a fort at this 
point, and when his bateaux should arrive, to go 
up Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga, fortify that 
place, and then march against Fort Frederick. 
Ticonderoga is a point projecting into the lake, fif- 
teen miles above Crown Point. But no fort was 
built, nor defences of any kind. The Indians came 
in slowly. The old Mohawk chief, Hendrick, told 
Johnson that Shirley had discouraged the warriors 
from enlisting under Johnson, between whom and 
himself there was a feeling of jealousy, and had 



228 BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. [1755. 

tried to induce them to go with him to Oswego. 
But in time a large number of them regained their 
confidence in Johnson, and joined him in his camp. 
While the thirty-four hundred men were wasting 
their time in Johnson's camp, Dieskau's men were 
making active preparations at Crown Point for the 
expected attack. 

After waiting some time, Dieskau resolved to ad- 
vance toward the English army, hoping to conquer 
it and leave the way open to Albany and Schenec- 
tady ; he could then march on those places and cut 
off communication with Oswego, after which the 
capture of that place would be easy. Taking with 
him fifteen hundred men, six hundred of whom 
were Indians, and two hundred regulars, he v/ent up 
the lake in boats, and landed at South Bay, on the 
present site of Whitehall. The army marched for 
three days, intending to attack Fort Edward. 
Halting on the road to Lake George, which had been 
taken by mistake instead of the one leading directly 
to Fort Edward, Dieskau sent a party of Indians to 
reconnoitre, who returned with the intelligence that 
their approach was known both at the fort and at 
the camp. The Indians, with their usual fear of 
cannon, were averse to attacking the fort, but were 
willing to advance against the camp. Dieskau as- 
sented, and marched toward Lake George. 



1755-] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 220 

When it was known in Johnson's camp that the 
French were approaching, warning was sent to Fort 
Edward. One of the messengers, a wagoner named 
Adams, was taken by the Indians and killed ; the 
other returned with the intelligence that the enemy 
were about four miles north of the fort. A coun- 
cil of war was held the next morning, the 7th of 
September, and it was decided to send out a 
thousand troops and two hundred Indians to meet 
the enemy. Hendrick was the only one who saw 
the folly of the movement. ** If they are to be 
killed," he said, " they are too many ; if they are to 
fight, they are too few. " But Hendrick was over- 
ruled, and putting himself at the head of his 
Mohawks, he rode out to the fray at sunrise the 
next morning, the only mounted man of the party, 
unable, from his age and weight, to go on foot. 
The detachment was headed by Colonel Ephraim 
Williams. 

As soon as Dieskau learned of their approach 
he prepared an ambuscade, arranging his men in a 
line which crossed the road and curved toward th^^ 
advancing English on both sides of it. The Frencn 
troops were therefore disposed in the form of a 
horse-shoe, those at one end being hidden by a ridge 
covered with trees and bushes, and those at the 
other crouching in a swampy spot also concealed 



230 BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. [1755. 

from the road by a thick undergrowth. When the 
English should have marched forward to where the 
" French line crossed the road, Dieskau's men could 
close in on both sides and surround them. 

As they entered the trap, Hendrick was riding in 
advance. He had gone some distance within the 
enclosing lines, but a part of the division was still 
without, w^hen an Indian suddenly appeared close 
to him and said, "Whence came you?" "From 
the Mohawks," answered Hendrick. ** Whence 
came you ? " " From Montreal," was the reply, and 
immediately a shot was fired, contrary to the orders 
of Dieskau, who had directed his men to be quiet 
until the English were completely within the French 
line. The shot was the signal for a general assault, 
and the firing began on both sides and in front of 
the astonished troops. One moment they had been 
riding through a silent wilderness ; the next they 
were surrounded by blazing muskets and whoop- 
ing savages. Hendrick was one of the first who 
fell, Williams and many other officers shared his 
fate, and the command devolved upon Lieutenant 
Nathan Whiting. 

The English gave way and retreated, fighting as 
they went, many of them spreading themselves out 
so as to oppose a wide front to the enemy, and dart- 
ing from tree to tree where they could find shelter 



1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 231 

and fire upon their pursuers ; the Canadians and 
Indians picking them off in the same way, and the 
French regulars advancing in a body and firing upon 
those who remained in a mass retreating along the 
road. 

When the noise of the battle was heard at the 
camp, the soldiers there, who had at last begun the 
building of some hasty defences after Williams had 
gone out with his men in the morning, hurriedly 
dragged the cannon up from the lake shore and 
heaped up a breastwork of felled trees. A reen- 
forcement of three hundred men, under Lieutenant- 
Colonel Cole, was sent out to the help of the re- 
treating division, and a stand was made at a little 
sheet of water, which received the name of Bloody 
Pond, and is pointed out as the grave of the unfor- 
tunate Frenchmen who fell upon its banks. Among 
them was the Chevalier Legardeur de St. Pierre, who 
was in command of the Indians. He was the ofificer 
to whom Washington delivered his letters from Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddle at Fort Le Bceuf. 

When the fugitives reached the camp they climbed 
over the breastwork of felled trees and wagons, 
and waited for the attack. Dieskau had intended 
to rush forward with the retreating division of the 
English and enter the camp at the same time. But 
the Indians halted as soon as they came in sight of 



232 BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. [1755. 

the guns, and the Canadians followed their example. 
Dieskau advanced toward the centre of the camp 
with his regulars, and when the Indians and Cana- 
dians scattered themselves about the swamp and 
took shelter behind the trees instead of sustaining 
the regulars, he asked in disappointment, "Are 
these the boasted troops ? " The regulars, however, 
behaved well ; they halted a hundred and fifty yards 
from the camp, and opened fire by platoons. It 
was about half-past eleven when the battle began. 
The three guns in the centre returned the fire of 
the French, and Johnson's men, sheltered behind 
the trees, picked off Dieskau 's regulars with deadly 
precision. Johnson was slightly wounded in the 
beginning of the fight, and the command devolved 
upon Lyman, who conducted the defence with the 
greatest spirit and bravery. Unable to stand the 
fire, the French regulars went to each side of the 
camp in succession, and fired into it, but without 
much effect. 

Excited and emboldened by their success, and 
rcenforced by the Mohawks, who had fled when 
the French appeared in sight of the camp, the 
Americans leaped over their defences and fought 
hand-to-hand. They had no bayonets, but they 
struck with their muskets, and clubbed and beat so 
furiously that nearly all the regulars who had sur- 



1755.] BA TTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 233 

vived their fire were knocked down and killed. 
Dieskau, wounded three times during the action, 
would not be carried away, but seated himself on 
the stump of a tree exposed to the fire, and tried 
to direct the movements of his men. When the) 
were driven into a disorderly retreat, he was left 
on the field. As they were flying he put his hand 
into his pocket, intending to take out his watch and 
give it to one of the pursuers who was about to cap- 
ture him ; but the man supposed he was drawing 
his pistol, and hastily fired, inflicting an incurable 
wound. 

Lyman would have followed up the retreat, and 
a close pursuit might have resulted in the capture of 
almost the entire army ; for two hundred troops 
were on the way from Fort Edward under the com- 
mand of Captain Macginnis, and the French soldiers 
would have been caught between the two parties. 
But Johnson gave orders to call back the men ; and 
when the French found themselves secure from 
pursuit they halted beside Rocky Brook. Here the 
half-starved men were preparing supper when the 
detachment from the fort fell upon them and put 
them to flight, after a sharp engagement, in which 
Macginnis was mortally wounded. The French bag- 
gage and ammunition were captured. 

The battle of Lake George, resulting in a victory 



234 BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. [1755. 

SO complete, revived the spirit of the Enghsh colo- 
nists from the depressing effects of Braddock's defeat. 
Although the victory was not followed up by the 
occupation of Ticonderoga and the capture of Crown 
Point, the original object of the expedition, the 
country looked upon it as a great success. Johnson 
received a baronetcy and five thousand pounds from 
England, to reward him for the victory, which was 
largely due to Lyman. Dieskau was sent to Eng- 
land a prisoner, but returned to France at the peace 
of 1763, and not long afterward died from the effect 
of his wound. 

During the autumn Johnson kept his men at 
work strengthening their position, and built a 
stockade fort at the south end of Lake George, 
which was called Fort William Henry. At the ap- 
proach of winter he garrisoned that and Fort Ed- 
ward, and allowed the rest of the provincial soldiers 
to return to their homes. The French took pos- 
session of the important post of Ticonderoga, and 
busied themselves in fortifying it ; two tliousand 
soldiers were said to be assembled there in the 
autumn, with a large body of Indians. 

But w^r had cot even yet been declared betw^eft 
the two countries wboser colonists were thus meet- 
ing on battle-fields in the new world, aided by 
regular troops from over the seas. These hostilities 



I755-] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 235 

were carried on under the name of measures of 
defence, by which each side professed to resist the 
aggressions of the other on territory of which it 
claimed the rightful ownership. The French, how- 
ever, deeply resented the capture of their two ships 
by Admiral Boscawen, an act which could not be 
defended on any such ground ; and they soon had 
still more cause for resentment. Sir Edward Hawke 
was sent out with a fleet under orders to take all 
French ships he met with, whether men-of-war or 
merchantmen ; and letters of marque were issued 
to cruisers. Great numbers of French vessels were 
on the return from Martinique with the products 
of the Jesuit plantations, and the fishing-boats were 
on their way from Newfoundland and the Labrador 
coast, laden with the results of the summer's work. 
Before the end of the year three hundred French 
vessels and seven or eight thousand French sailors 
had been carried into English ports. The king's 
share of the spoils amounted to seven hundred 
thousand pounds. 

This alone was enough to bring on a war. But 
^ the French were not ready ; and they returned an 
English man-of-war which had been taken by some 
French ships, protesting against the acts of England 
on the seas and stigmatizing them as piracy. Prep- 
arations for the inevitable war went on, both na- 



236 BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. [1755. 

tions seeking alliances among the other powers of 
Europe, appealing to the resentments, the preju- 
dices, and the cupidity of their sovereigns. Prussia 
joined with England ; Austria, Russia, and Saxony 
were on the side of France. In the general Euro- 
pean struggle which followed, known as the Seven 
Years* War, the events of the colonial war in Amer- 
ica were but lightly considered, though they deter- 
mined the fortunes of a continent. 

Governor Shirley was still continued at the head 
of affairs, though it began to be evident that his 
military capacity was by no means brilliant. He 
called a council of governors in the city of New 
York in December, 1755, and laid out a plan for the 
campaign of the ensuing year, substantially the same 
as that which had been arranged for that year, 
nothing having been effected but the conquest of 
Acadia, Forts Du Quesne, Frederick, and Niagara 
still remained to be taken ; and expeditions for 
their capture were determined on for the coming 
summer, while a force was to move up the Kenne- 
bec to the settlements on the Chaudiere. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FRENCH SUCCESSES. 

Declaration of War — Lord Loudoun Commander-in-chief — Inaction 
of Abercrombie — Adventure of Bradstreet — Capture of Fort Bull 
— Montcalm — Capture of Oswego — Movements of Webb — Lou- 
doun s Troops Quartered on the Cities — Devastation of the Shen- 
andoah Valley — Dinwiddle's Plan of Defence — Washington's Sug- 
gestions — Destruction of Kittanning — The Iroquois. 

War was at length declared by England, May 
17th, 1756. Governor Shirley was removed from the 
command of the forces in America, and a still more 
incapable officer was appointed to the place, the 
Earl of Loudoun. Lord Loudoun's chief recom- 
mendation for the post was his zeal for the asser- 
tion of the rights of the mother-country over her 
colonies. He was also appointed Governor of the 
Dominion of Virginia, and his power as military 
chief was supreme over all the colonial governments. 
The provincial soldiers were to be put under offi- 
cers of the regular army whom Loudoun might ap- 
point ; and he was given authority to quarter his 
soldiers on the inhabitants of the colonies at will. 
General James Abercrombie was to be second in 
command. One hundred and fifteen thousand 



238 FRENCH SUCCESSES. [1756. 

pounds was voted to the northern provinces to re- 
imburse them for the campaign of 1755 ; at the 
same time they were forbidden to negotiate with 
the Indians, all dealings with whom were to be left 
to Sir William Johnson, who was responsible alone 
to Lord Loudoun. 

Loudoun's slowness and indecision, combined 
with a great affectation of business habits, are ex- 
hibited by a story of Franklin, who went to New York 
in the beginning of April to sail for Europe in a 
packet which was to set out immediately, but was 
kept waiting till the end of June for his lordship's 
letters, which were always to be ready to-morrow ; 
" and yet," says Franklin, " whoever waited on him 
found him always at his desk, pen in hand, and 
concluded he must needs write abundantly." One 
morning while he was waiting for the ship's depart- 
ure Franklin met in the earl's antechamber a mes- 
senger from Philadelphia named Innis, with a packet 
of letters from the Governor to the earl. Franklin 
wished to send back some letters by him to Phila- 
delphia ; and Innis told him he was to call the next 
morning at nine for Lord Loudoun's answer to the 
Governor, and should then set out at once. Frank- 
lin prepared his letters and gave them to Innis the 
same day. "A fortnight after," continues Frank- 
lin, ** I met him again in the same place. ' So you 



1756.] FRENCH SUCCESSES. 239 

are soon returned, Innis ' ' ' Returned ! no, I am 
not gone yet.' ' How so ? ' * I have called here this 
and every morning these two weeks past for his 
lordship's letters, and they are not yet ready.' * Is 
it possible, when he is so great a writer ? for I see 
him constantly at his escritoire.* * Yes,' said Innis, 
* but he is like St. George on the signs — always on 
horseback, but never rides on.' " 

The same characteristic was manifested in all of 
the earl's proceedings. Abercrombie was to go in 
advance with two battalions, but it was the middle 
of June before he reached New York. On the 25th 
he was in Albany. Oswego was threatened by the 
French, and he wa5 urged to relieve it at once. 
Men, stores, and boats were ready, but Abercrombie 
Ava^ not. He was busy "with preparations to quarter 
his soldiers on the town, and when that was done he 
began to talk of fortifying Albany with a ditch and 
stockade, and ordered a survey for that purpose. 

Colonel Bradstreet, who had been sent to Oswego 
with provisions and military stores, was surprised 
on his way back by a body of Canadians and 
Indians about ten miles from that place. A fight 
ensued, in which Bradstreet put the enemy to 
flight, but he had not men enough to venture on a 
pursuit. One of the prisoners revealed the designs 
of the French and their movements preparatory to 



240 FRENCH SUCCESSES. [1756. 

an attack on Oswego, which Bradstreet reported to 
Abercromble, who had ten thousand regulars and 
seven thousand provincials at his command. The 
roads were opened, and the two forts at Oswego 
were ready for occupation and well provided wnth 
stores of all kinds. Abercrombie ordered a regi- 
ment of regulars to prepare to go to Oswego, but 
before they were ready Lord Loudoun arrived, on 
the 29th of July. More time was spent in debating 
the question of the status of the provincial officers 
and troops, and the regiment did not move until 
the 1 2th of yVugust. The French under De Lery 
and De Villiers had been active during the spring 
in getting possession of the approaches to Oswego 
from Albany, and in the conciliation of the Indians 
-of New York. De Lery came from Montreal with 
two hundred and sixty-five m.en, and on the 27th of 
March surprised the garrison of Fort Bull, at the 
Oneida portage, capturing them after a short re- 
sistance ; and all but five were massacred, the fort 
was blown up, and the military stores destroyed. 
A party of Indians descended upon some ship-car- 
pcntcrs who were working at Oswego, and returned 
to Niagara in triumph with three prisoners and 
twelve scalps. These small successes and the mar- 
tial activity of the French inclined the wavering 
v/arriors of the Iroquois toward their alliance ; 



1756.] FRENCH SUCCESSES. 241 

and the Indians of the upper country about the 
lakes began to flock to Fort Niagara to form war- 
parties. 

During the summer the French forces were 
placed under the command of one of the ablest 
soldiers of his time, Louis Joseph, Marquis de 
Montcalm de Saint Veron. Small, quick, and ac- 
tive, Montcalm saw at a glance what ought to be 
done, and wasted no time in talking about it. 
Remaining only a few days at Quebec, he sent a 
force of men to Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, and 
another, under De Villiers, to the Bay of Niaoure, 
to a spot now known as Six Town Point, in Jef- 
ferson county, to observe the movements of the 
enemy and keep him in check. Another regiment 
was sent by Montcalm to Niagara, accompanied by 
a skilful engineer, Pouchot, to strengthen the forti- 
fications there. 

On the 5th of August, Montcalm, taking two regi- 
ments of regular troops with him, left Fort Fronte- 
nac, and, encamping at the Bay of Niaoure, sent De 
Villiers and Rigaud de Vaudreuil to take a position 
not far from Oswego. Montcalm followed, and by 
the 1 2th of August the forces were gathered before 
the forts at Oswego and ready for operations. 

Fort Oswego, or Pepperell, called Chouaguen by 
the French, stood near the site of the ** stone house 



242 FRENCH SUCCESSES. [1756. 

of strength," built by Governor Burnet in 1726, 
and was a large stone fort with four bastions. On 
an eminence across the river which commanded it 
Governor Shirley had placed Fort Ontario. The 
garrison consisted of sixteen hundred men under the 
command of Colonel Mercer, many of them raw re- 
cruits. 

On the night of the 12th of August, the day when 
the regiments started from Albany to relieve the 
fort, the French opened trenches before Fort 
Ontario and felled trees for an abatis, finishing the 
work by daybreak. The batteries opened fire that 
day, and the garrison returned it with spirit as long 
as their ammunition lasted ; for, in addition to the 
other blunders, Fort Ontario had been left with a 
very slender store. At three o'clock in the after- 
noon, they spiked their guns and crossed to Fort 
Oswego in boats sent over by Colonel Mercer. 

The French took immediate possession of the 
deserted works, and the guns of Fort Oswego were 
turned upon them. Mercer had sent a party under 
Colonel Schuyler to a hill four and a half miles up 
the river, where they were intrenched, and designed 
to harass the French. But Montcalm despatched 
Vaudreuil with a party of Canadians and Indians to 
cut off communication between the fort and the hill, 
while his men kept up a continuous fire on Fort 



I756.J FRENCH SUCCESSES. 243 

Oswego with their batteries and such guns of Fort 
Ontario as they could use. Mercer was killed by a 
cannon-ball on the 13th, and on the 14th the garri- 
son resolved to surrender, Montcalm promising 
that they should receive " all the regard which the 
most courteous of nations could show." ' 

The English lost forty-five men killed, and all the 
rest prisoners, one hundred and twenty-one cannon, 
six vessels of war, two hundred boats, and three 
chests of money, together with stores of ammunition 
and provisions. After removing the stores, Mont- 
calm destroyed the forts in the presence of the war- 
riors of the Six Nations who had accompanied him. 
Those Indians had always looked upon the erection 
of the forts as an infraction of their rights, and this 
act on the part of Montcalm was an acknowledg- 
ment of the justice of their claim and a profession 
of the intention of the French to uphold them in it, 
and not continue the trespass by keeping the forts 
for themselves. 

In Montcalm's account of the surrender he says : 
** Their stores were provided with everything to 
maintain our army during the next campaign. The 
least superstitious attribute our success to Prov- ^ 
idence. We have lost, notwithstanding, eighty men, 
and our little army had been swamped if that valor 
so justly attributed to the troops of Old England 



244 FRENCH SUCCESSES. [1756. 

had extended to her colonies. Ours is now more 
flourishing than ever ; trade entirely re-established ; 
Lake Ontario ours without any opposition. We can 
hardly recover from our astonishment. The bul- 
wark of New England was originally but the house 
of an individual whom the Iroquois had permitted 
to build ; of this the king took possession some 
years afterward for purposes of trade. He in- 
creased it with all the works which we demolish- 
ed. Their loss is incredible. The Canadians and 
Indians have had a very considerable slice of the 
cake ; the latter perpetrated there a multitude of 
horrors and assassinated more than one hundred 
persons included in the capitulation, without our 
being able to prevent them or having the right to 
remonstrate with them. This species of animal I 
look upon as mad dogs ; when they are intoxicated 
they are uncontrollable. " 

It is said that Montcalm, notwithstanding his 
pledge of honorable treatment to the prisoners, de- 
livered up about twenty men of the garrison to the 
Indians to recompense them for the same number of 
their men who had fallen during the siege. It is 
possible that this and the slaughter of sick and 
wounded prisoners mentioned above, was, as he 
says, beyond his power to prevent. The rest of the 
prisoners were taken to Montreal, and exchanp-ed 



1756.] FRENCH SUCCESSES. 245 

not long afterward. The Biitish flags were sent to 
Montreal, Quebec, and Three Rivers, where they 
were hung in the churches as trophies of the victory. 
The Abbe Picquet, founder of the mission of La Pre- 
sentation, on the site of Ogdensburg, was with this 
expedition, and raised a cross on the scene of the 
French victory, to which was affixed the motto, In 
hoc signo vincmit, " In this sign they conquer." 
By its side he raised a column with the King's arms 
and the inscription, Ma7iibus date lilia plenis, " Bring 
lilies, with full hands." 

Webb, who had set out from Albany the day the 
French began their operations at Oswego, was slowly 
advancing when he received the news of Montcalm's 
victory. Waiting only to fell trees to obstruct the 
passage of Wood Creek, a stream whose head-waters 
were near those of the Mohawk, and formed a part 
of the water communication between Albany and 
Oswego, he fled back to Albany in haste and terror. 

Montcalm, supposing the English forces at Albany 
would now be turned against the French forts on 
Lake Champlain, hurried to Ticonderoga. But 
Loudoun had no idea of advancing. The expedi- 
tion against Forts Carillon and Frederick was given 
up ; and the general turned his attention to quar- 
tering his troops for the winter, after strengthening 
the works at Forts Edward and Vv^illiam [leiiry. 



246 ' FRENCH SUCCESSES. [1756. 

The cities of New York and Philadelphia protested 
against being forced to give free quarters to the sol- 
diers in the houses of the citizens ; but Loudoun 
threatened to bring all the troops in North America 
and billet them upon those cities if they resisted. 

While these things were going on, or failing to go 
on, at the north, and soldiers were lying inactive in 
the safety of the large northern cities, the frontiers 
of Pennsylvania and Virginia were suffering from 
the constant inroads of hostile savages, and it v/as 
impossible to raise men in numbers sufficient to im- 
pose the least check upon them. Washington had 
command of all the forces raised, or to be raised, 
in the province ; but it was almost impossible to 
get men to respond to the calls for gatherings of the 
provincial soldiers. 

The valley of the Shenandoah was especially ex- 
posed to these attacks. No farm-house was safe, 
and no man sure of his life for a moment, on the 
road or the farm, in his own house, or even in the 
little stockaded forts. Winchester was in a state of 
continual alarm. Washington was sent for, and de- 
cided that a force of militia must be raised, and, 
aided by some of the soldiers from Fort Cumber- 
land, must scour the woods in search of the maraud- 
ing parties, which in many instances were led by 
Frenchmen. 



J756.] FRENCH SUCCESSES. 247 

A messenger was therefore despatched to Fort 
Cumberland ; and all captains of militia were 
ordered to gather their men and read to them an 
exhortation, setting forth the danger, and appealing 
to their patriotism and their interest, to assemble 
on the 15th of April to join the expedition. The 
officers at Fort Cumberland sent back word that no 
men could be spared ; that detachments had been 
sent out in various directions, and the garrison was 
no more than sufficient for the defence of the fort. 
The messenger reported that the woods were filled 
with lurking savages ; his own clothes were pierced 
with bullets, his horse shot under him, and he had 
barely escaped with his life. The plan for assem- 
bling the militia turned out no better ; on the ap- 
pointed day only fifteen men presented themselves. 

The Indians grew bolder ; houses were burned 
and families murdered all about Winchester, and 
the inhabitants, growing frantic, gathered about 
Washington, imploring him to do something to 
avert the calamity ; but he was paralyzed by the im- 
possibility of raising men. In a letter to Governor 
Dinwiddle he wrote : 

" I am too little acquainted with pathetic lan- 
guage to attempt a description of these people's 
distresses. But what can I do ? I know their dan- 
ger, and participate in their sufferings, without hav- 



248 FRENCH SUCCESSES. [1756. 

ing it in my power to give them further relief than 
uncertain promises. The supplicating tears of the 
women and moving petitions of the men melt me 
into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, 
if I know my own mind, that I could offer myself a 
willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided 
that would contribute to the people's ease." 

This letter called forth an order from the Gov- 
ernor for a force of militia from the upper counties 
to go to the relief of the frontier ; and the Assembly 
voted an apptropriation of twenty thousand pounds 
and an increase of the provincial forces to fifteen 
thousand men. Governor Dinwiddie proposed to 
expend the money in building a chain of forts along 
the Alleghanies from the Potomac to the border of 
North Carolina, and to garrison the forts with the 
new militia to be raised. In vain Washington laid 
before the Governor the difficulties of carrying out 
such a plan. To place the forts near enough 
together for the scouts to keep watch of the whole 
line, and to prevent the marauders from breaking 
through at any point, without assistance from dis- 
tant forts, would have called for a much greater 
outlay of money and vastly more men than the 
province could possibly raise. 

Washington's own plan was, to build not more 
than four or five strong forts, v/ith large garrisons, 



1756.] FRENCH SUCCESSES. 249 

the largest and strongest to be at Winchester, a 
point where many roads met, where news could be 
quickly received from all parts of the valley, and 
where the defenceless inhabitants could take refuge 
in case of alarm. But Dinwiddle persisted in his 
design of building twenty-three forts along the 
frontier, and of maintaining Fort Cumberland at 
great expense, though it was so far away from the 
routes taken ^y the Indians that everything was 
over before the garrison could be notified. The 
erection of a central fort at Winchester was, how- 
ever, agreed upon. 

But the preparations for these great defensive 
works went on very slowly, and meantime the sav- 
ages kept up their incursions. The people of the 
Shenandoah valley, despairing of protection, left 
their homes in large numbers, and moved to the 
eastern settlements. It seemed that the province of 
Virginia would soon be practically bounded on the 
west by the Blue Ridge. 

A bold and successful attempt at retribution was 
made this year in Pennsylvania. An Indian town 
called Kittanning, about forty miles from Fort Du 
Quesne, was the rendezvous for parties of maraud- 
ing Indians ; and about one thousand people on the 
frontier had fallen victims in their raids. They were 
led by the chief Shingis, and another known as Cap- 



250 FRENCH SUCCESSES. [1756. 

tain Jacobs, a bold and brave Indian, who boasted 
that he could " take any fort that would catch fire." 

To put a stop to these raids, a party of two hun- 
dred and eighty Pennsylvanians placed themselves 
under the command of Colonel John Armstrong. 
One of the officers under him was Captain Hugh 
Mercer, afterward of Revolutionary fame, who had 
served as a surgeon in the army of the Young 
Pretender, and after his defeat at Culloden escaped 
to America. The men marched rapidly from Fort 
Shirley on the Juniata, and reached the Alleghany 
without a suspicion on the part of the savages that 
vengeance was on their track. 

On the night of the 7th of October, Armstrong's 
men drew near enough to hear the rejoicings of 
the Indians over their victories — the whoops, and 
screams, and sound of drums. When the carouse 
was over, the Indians made fires in the fields and 
went to sleep beside them without sentinels. 
Armstrong's men hid themselves until the moon 
had set and all the warriors were asleep ; then, di- 
viding into two parties, they attacked the village 
and the sleeping warriors in the fields at the same 
time. The Indians fought with desperate bravery ; 
Captain Jacobs defended himself to the last, fighting 
through the loop-holes of his log house. The vil- 
lage had been set on fire, and as the flames drew 



1756.] FRENCH SUCCESSES. 251 

near his dwelling, he was offered quarter, which he 
refused, saying he would kill a few before he died. 
He and the warriors with him were at length driven 
out by the fire, and some escaped to the woods. 
Captain Jacobs attempted to get away, but was 
shot ; as was also his son, who was said to be a 
giant seven feet high. The whole town was de- 
stroyed by the fire ; the repeated explosions of 
loaded guns and bags and kegs of powder showing 
how well the Indians were prepared for future raids. 

Both Armstrong and Mercer were wounded. On 
the return march, which was made as rapidly as 
possible for fear the alarm might reach Fort Du 
Quesne and a party be sent out in pursuit, Mercer 
was separated from his companions, and only 
feached the fort after fourteen days of lonely wan- 
dering through the woods, finding his way by the 
water-courses, and living on two dried clams and a 
rattlesnake, with a few berries. 

The Six Nations were now fast passing over from 
their neutral position to the side of the French ; the 
younger braves would have taken up the hatchet at 
once to fight under Montcalm for the prospering 
cause. The English, losing these fickle allies by their 
failures, were still to meet more reverses, and bring 
their military pretensions into still greater contempt. 



CHAPTER XV. 

LOUISBOURG AND FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 

An Indian Raid — Encounter between Stark's Men and the French — 
Vaudreuil's Attempt at Fort William Henry — Loudoun's Council — 
Affairs in the South — Plan to Take Louisbourg — Admiral Hol- 
bourne — Withdrawal from Louisbourg — Opinion in England — In 
America — Siege of Fort William Henry — Webb's Cowardice — 
Monroe's Surrender — Massacre by Montcalm's Indians — Descent 
on the German Flats — Situation at the Close of the Year — The 
Duke of Newcastle — William Pitt. 

During the ensuing year, 1757, the British cause 
in America reached its lowest ebb. The French, 
under the briUiant leadership of Montcalm, achieved 
so many successes that it seemed as if the Bourbon 
lilies would soon float over every stronghold of the con- 
tinent. Loudoun continued to give away advantages 
by his slowness and cowardice ; and the few brave 
dashes made by parties of provincials were of little 
effect, because not followed by any movement of the 
main forces. During the winter, which was very long 
and cold, the frozen waters of Lake Champlain formed 
a highway for war-parties on their deadly errands. 
An Indian chief, Aouschik, who had killed one of 
Montcalm's engineers the summer before, mistaking 
him for an Englishman, demonstrated the sincerity of 



I757-J FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 253 

his regret by bringing in thirty-three English scalps 
during the year. In the course of a discussion of a 
treaty between his nation, the Nipissings, and the 
French, he exclaimed, ''What need of councils, de- 
liberations, and proposals, when action is needed ? 
I hate the Englishman. 1 thirst for his blood. I 
am going to bathe in it;" and he broke into a 
hideous war-song, and led out his braves. 

In January, John Stark led seventy-four men from 
Fort William Henry, on snow-shoes and skates, to 
Lake Champlain. They attacked a party of French- 
men who were travelling in sledges from Fort 
Carillon to Fort Frederick, and took three of the 
sledges, with their horses, and seven prisoners. But 
just as they reached the land, in retreating, they 
were attacked in turn by two hundred and fifty 
French and Indians. Stark's men took shelter be- 
hind hills and trees, and fought till evening, when 
they retreated, leaving fourteen killed and six 
missing. 

In February, Montcalm formed a plan for captur- 
ing Fort William Henry. Fifteen hundred men, 
under the command of Rigaud de Vaudreuil, start- 
ing on the 23d, crossed Lakes Champlain and 
George, marching sixty leagues on snow-shoes. 
Their provisions were drawn on sledges, by dogs ; 
and at night they spread bear-skins on the snow, or 



254 LOUISBOURG AND [1757. 

raised tents in stormy weather. On the 1 8th of 
March they were in front of the fort, but found 
themselves disappointed in their hope of a surprise ; 
they had been discovered, and the garrison was on 
the alert. Rigaud thought it useless to attempt to 
carry the fort by assault, but set his men at work to 
destroy everything outside the works. For four 
nights they worked under fire, burning up the boats, 
the mills, magazines, and palisaded houses, and the 
cabins of the rangers. Three hundred and fifty 
bateaux and four brigantines were consumed. The 
fire of the garrison inflicted some damage, but they 
made no attempts by sorties to drive off the French 
or stop their depredations. 

A council of governors held at Boston in January 
had agreed to raise four thousand men in the 
northern colonies, and New York and New Jersey 
were to be called on for proportionate numbers to 
increase Lord Loudoun's army for the summer 
campaign. In March, another council was held at 
Philadelphia, and Washington obtained permission 
from Governor Dinwiddie to be present, wishing to 
represent to Lord Loudoun the interests of Virginia. 
He was anxious that another attack should be made 
on Fort Du Quesne, at the same time with the 
operations in the north, since a large part of the 
garrison would be drawn away to the Canadian 



1 75 7-] FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 255 

frontier. Loudoun did not approve of the plan, as 
he desired the southern colonies simply to stand on 
the defensive. He gave orders, however, in accord- 
ance with Washington's advice, to withdraw the 
garrison from Fort Cumberland, leaving Maryland to 
supply that point, and make Fort Loudoun, at Win- 
chester, the head-quarters of the Virginia militia. 
Stanwix was stationed on the frontier of Pennsyl- 
vania, Colonel Henry Bouquet had charge of the 
Carolina border, and Webb was furnished with 
nearly six thousand men to defend the important 
posts about Lake George. 

Loudoun's own work for the summer was to be 
the reduction of Louisbourg. Abandoning for the 
time the idea of capturing the forts on the English 
borders, he resolved to take the greater part of his 
forces to Halifax, where he was to be joined by 
an English squadron, and proceed to Louisbourg. 
The New England provinces had been greatly dis- 
appointed at the surrender of that fortress by treaty 
after they had taken it in 1745 by their almost un- 
aided prowess, an achievement which they justly 
regarded with pride ; and, in addition to this, the 
fact that Louisbourg, when held by the French, wa^ 
a harbor of refuge for the cruisers that preyed upon 
the colonial vessels, made the project for re-taking it 
very popular in New England. 



256 LOUISBOURG AND [1757. 

Admiral Holbourne arrived at Halifax early in 
July with a squadron and a reenforcement of five 
thousand troops under Lord George Howe. On the 
6th of the same month, Loudoun sailed from New 
York with six thousand men, having first laid an 
embargo on all the ships in the ports of British 
North America — an assumption of power which 
aroused the indignation of the colonies, and was not 
approved by the English Government. 

Arrived at Halifax, Loudoun set his men at work, 
levelling ground for a parade and planting a vegetable 
garden to furnish protection against the scurvy. Then 
he kept them exercising in drills, and sham fights, 
and mock sieges, until the impatience of some of the 
subordinate officers broke out into open criticism. 
At the beginning of August, the troops were em- 
barked for Gabarus Bay ; but on the 4th informa- 
tion was received from a captured sloop that the 
French had nineteen ships of war and three thou- 
sand regular troops, besides many Canadians and 
Indians. The English had but seventeen, ships of 
war, and Admiral Holbourne dared not attack the 
French nineteen. Loudoun also prudently resolved 
to put off the capture of Louisbourg until another 
summer, and some of the soldiers were left at Hali- 
fax, while he returned with the greater part of them 
to New York. 



1 75 7- J FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 257 

Horace Walpole had written In February of this 
year, ^*I do not augur very well of the ensuing 
summer ; a detachment is going to America under 
a com.mander whom a child might outwit or terrify 
with a pop-gun." After news of the fiasco at Lou- 
isbourg reached England, he wrote, ** Shortly after 
came letters from the Earl of Loudoun, stating that 
he found the French twenty-one thousand strong, 
and that, not having so many, he could not attack 
Louisbourg, but should return to Halifax. Admiral 
Holbourne, one of the sternest condemners of Byng, 
wrote at the same time that he, having but seven- 
teen ships and the French nineteen, dared not at- 
tack them. Here was another summer lost ! Pitt 
expressed himself with great vehemence against the 
earl ; and we naturally have too lofty ideas of our 
naval strength to suppose that seventeen of our 
ships are not a match for any nineteen others," - 



* The tierk of a church in Halifax, on the news of the abandon- 
ment of the enterprise against Cape Breton, gave out, for the expres- 
sion of his own feelings and those of the people generally, some 
stanzas of the forty-fourth psalm : 

O God, we with our ears have heard, 

Our fathers have us told, 
What works thou in their days hadst done 

Evenln the days of old. 

Thy hand did drive the heathen out, 
And plant them in their place ; 



258 LOUISBOURG AND [1757. 

Loudoun was only two days out on his way to 
New York, when he was met by tidings of more 
misfortune to the British arms. As soon as it was 
known by the French that he had sailed for Louis- 
bourg, Montcalm resolved to strike another blow in 
New York, for which he had been making prepara- 
tions during the entire spring and summer. Noth- 
ing had been left undone to incite the Indians and 
unite them for a blow at the English fortifications at 
Lake George. A grand council was held at Niagara 
on the 1st of July, at which the Iroquois gave belts 

Thou didst afflict the nations. 
But them thou didst increase. 

But now we are cast off by thee, 

And us thou putt'st to shame ; 
And when our armies do go forth. 

Thou goest not with the same. 

Thou mak'st us from the enemy. 

Faint-hearted, to turn back ; - . 

And they who hate us, for themselves 

Our spoils away do take. 

Like sheep for meat thou gavest us ; 

'Mongst heathen cast we be. 
Thou didst for nought thy people sell ; 

Their price enriched not thee. 

Thou mak'st us a reproach to be 

Unto our neighbors near, 
Derision and a scorn to them 

That round about us are. 
Rise for our help and us redeem 

Even for thy mercies' sake. 



1757.] FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 259 

to the Hurons, Ottawas, and other allies of the 
French, as a token of their intention to join the 
enemies of the English ; and a belt was given in re- 
ply, which was covered with vermiHon, signifying 
an invitation to war. They desired the Iroquois to 
bring to their father — that is, the French Governor — 
some of the bad meat they loved so well. By the 
" bad meat " they meant the English. 

Another congress was held at Montreal, at which 
thirty-three nations were represented, including 
chiefs from Acadia to Lake Superior. '^ We will try 
our father's hatchet on the English, to see if it cuts 
well," said a chief of. the Senecas. Montcalm sang 
the war-song with them every day of the council, 
and they loved him as a leader whom they never 
had seen beaten, who could open the way for them 
to an unlimited quantity of plunder and scalps. The 
tribes were assembled at Fort St. John, on the River 
Sorel. Their missionaries came with them, and 
masses and hymns of the church alternated' with the 
fantastic dance and the unearthly yells that heralded 
the strife. When all was ready, they ascended the 
river and Lake Champlain in a fleet of two hun- 
dred canoes, and landed at Ticonderoga. 

Several minor engagements took place while 
Montcalm was preparing for the main attack. A 
party went out under Marin to the vicinity of Fort 



26o LOUISBOURG AXD [1757. 

Edward, and returned in triumph. ^' They did not 
amuse themselves with making prisoners/' said 
Montcalm, as the one captive and the forty-two 
scalps were taken from the boat, and exhibited 
before the admiring eyes of the Indians. A slight 
skirmish took place at Harbor Island near Sabbath- 
Day Point. A party of three hundred was sent out 
from Fort William Henry under an officer named 
Palmer, to make observations, when a band of 
Ottawas who liad been hiding for twenty-four hours 
suddenly rushed upon the twenty-two boats of the' 
English, and made such havoc that only twelve 
escaped. One hundred and sixty were taken 
prisoners ; the rest were drowned, or fell under the 
fury of the savages. After this victory, the Ot- 
tawas wanted to go home. They felt that they 
had glory enough, and ought not to tempt the 
fortunes of war any farther. But Montcalm held 
another council, and bound all the Indians, by the 
presentation of the great belt of six thousand shells, 
to stay until the end of the expedition. 

Fort William Henry was close to the shore Of the 
lake, on ground so low that it seemed from a little 
distance to be resting on the water. The walls 
were low, and bastions rose ^t the four corners. 
The land immediately about the fort had been 
cleared and planted as a garden by the garrison. 



1757.3 FORT WILLIAM HENRY, 261 

On the east was a morass, and the other sides were 
protected by a ditch. On the southeast was an 
eminence, the summit of which commanded the fort, 
and would have been a better site for the works. 
On the top of this hill a camp was formed with 
intrenchments, which contained about seventeen 
hundred men, and the fort four or five hundred. 

Montcalm's Vvdiole army, fifty-five hundred regu- 
lars and Canadians and sixteen hundred Indians, 
crossed from Ticonderoga to the foot of Lake 
George. Here, as there was a scarcity of boats, a 
division was made. The Chevalier De Levis, with 
twenty-two hundred soldiers and six hundred Lid- 
ians, marched by land along the rugged trail on 
the western side of the lake, w^hile the rest of the 
Indians set out in their bark canoes, and the follow^ 
ing day Montcalm embarked with the remainder of 
the army and all the baggage in two hundred and 
fifty boats. After rowing that day and most of the 
night, they came in sight of three fires arranged in a 
triangle which marked the camp of De Levis. 

Here they halted, held a council of war, and 
selected a'place for landing which was hidden from 
the fort by a point of land extending into the lake. 
During the night, two of the canoes had attacked 
two English boats which were out on the lake, and 
after a struggle, In which the Niplssings lost a great 



2 62 LOUISBOURG AND [1757. 

chief, one of the English boats was captured, and 
all the men in it were slaughtered, save two who 
were held as prisoners. 

The next morning, August 2d, the Indians 
threw out a line of canoes across the lake, and 
raised the war-cry. The English, taken by surprise, 
withdrew in haste from their tents and outlying 
barracks, while the detachment of De Levis scoured 
the woods, burned the barracks, chased the cattle 
and horses, and slew a small foraging party whom 
they surprised in the woods. Montcalm landed 
about a mile and a half from the fort, at the north- 
west, and advanced ia three columns. One detach- 
ment of Indians and Canadians, under La Corne, 
took a position on the road leading to Fort Edward ; 
another, under De Levis, formed an encampment 
south of the fort ; while Montcalm, with the main 
body of the army, was on the west shore of the lake, 
at the edge of the forest. The 3d of August was 
employed in preparing for a siege. 

On the 4th, Montcalm sent a summons to Colonel 
Monroe, commanding at the fort, to surrender, and 
intimated that in case the garrison should resist, and 
the fort be finally taken by siege, he could not 
answer for the behavior of his Indians. Monroe 
had not more than twenty-two hundred men ; but 
relying on assistance from General Webb, who was 



1757] FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 265 

at Fort Edward, fifteen miles away, with four 
thousand men, he answered that he would not sur- 
render. *' I will defend my trust," he said, *'to 
the last extremity." The French then pushed on 
their preparations with vigor ; they dug trenches, 
brought fascines for the batteries, and gabions for 
shelter, and drew the artillery from the landing- 
place. The first battery was at length prepared, and 
opened on the fort in the morning of the 6th, to the 
great delight of the Indians, who had seen but little 
artillery practice, and were nearly beside themselves 
at the noise of the big guns. The fire was returned, 
but with much less power, v/hile the trenches were 
carried so close to the fort that the Indians could 
stand near enough to fire upon the works with- 
out danger from the guns. Another battery was 
erected, and the sharp-shooters drew closer around 
the fort, hiding not only in the zigzags, but behind 
every forest tree or cover of any kind. 

The walls of the fort were fast giving way under 
the fire of the batteries, and the garrison were fall- 
ing under the deadly bullets ; but Monroe still held 
out, hoping for relief; for General Webb was welH 
aware, from the first, of the approach of the French 
army, and of Monroe's brave defence. When Mont- 
calm was coming over the lake, Webb was in the 
neighborhood of Fort William Henry ; and Israel 



264 LOUISBOURG AND [1757. 

Putnam,- who was on the lake with a party of 
rano-ers, discovered the movement of the French 
and hastened to Webb with the news, urging him to 
oppose the landing ; but Webb— enjoining secrecy 
on Putnam, it is said — fell back to P'ort Edward. 

On the second day of the siege, Sir William 
Johnson arrived at Fort Edward with some Indians 
and militia, whom he had hastily gathered after 
hearing of the departure of Montcalm's army from 
Ticonderoga. Finding that Webb was determined 
to do nothing, he asked to be allowed to make up a 
body of reenforcements from those who would vol- 
unteer to go. Webb consented at first, but after- 
ward withdrew his consent ; and the whole four 
thousand at Fort Edward remained inactive. A 
letter was despatched by Webb to the fort, prob- 
ably on the da}^ of Johnson's arrival, advising 
Monroe to surrender, as it would be impossible for 
him to send any help unless he himself should be 
reenforced from Albany, and giving an exaggerated 
account of the strength of the P>ench. The mes- 
.scnger was taken by a party of P'rench on the road 
between the two forts, who read the letter, and 
then sent it on to Monroe. 

On the sixth day of the siege, August 9th, when 
half of the guns of the fort had burst, and the 
ammunition was nearly gone, Monroe, knowing 



I757-] FORT WILLIAM HEXRV, 265 

that he had nothing to hope for from Webb, hung 
out a flag of truce. In arranging the terms of ca- 
pitulation, Montcalm invited the Indian chiefs to 
the council, in order to make it binding on them. 
The garrison were to march out with the honors of 
war, cariying their private effects, and delivering up 
the fort, with the intrenched camp and all its de- 
pendencies, and all the artillery', provisions, and war- 
like stores, to his Most Christian Majesty the King 
of France. The garrison and other troops were not 
to serve against his Most Christian Majesty or his 
allies for the space of eighteen months. 

All French prisoners taken by land since the begin- 
ning of the war were to be delivered at Fort Carillon 
within three months • and, according to receipts 
given by the French officers to whom they should 
be surrendered, an equal number of the troops at 
Fort William Henry should be released from their 
engagement not to serve in the English armies. An 
officer was to be left as a hostage until the return of 
the escort to be provided for the English troops. 
The sick and wounded were to remain with Mont- 
calm, who promised to take proper care of them 
and return them as soon as they were recovered. As 
a mark of esteem to Colonel Monroe and the gar- 
rison, for their honorable defence, Montcalm gave 
them '• one piece of caniion, a sIx-pounder. " 



266 LOUISBOURG AND [1757. 

The English retired to the intrenched camp, and 
the French took possession of the fort, while the 
Indians spent the night in a \^ild carouse in 
honor of the victory. When the English marched 
out in the morning, carrying their arms and baggage, 
and accompanied by an escort from the French 
army, the rage and cupidity of the Indians were 
at once excited ; they were never able to understand 
the consideration shown to prisoners by civilized 
nations, and they had been drawn to the fight by 
the hope of plunder, as well as the thirst for blood. 
At a favorable spot a short distance from the camp, 
they fell upon the luckless soldiers, stripped them 
of everything they carried, and even of the clothes 
they wore, and hewed them down without mercy. 
Attacked in this unexpected way, the troops who 
had just shown so much bravery in the defence of 
the fort were thrown into a panic of uncontrollable 
terror, and fled in all directions, some to the woods, 
some to the French soldiers for protection. Twelve 
to fifteen hundred were taken captive by the Indians, 
and many were killed. 

In regard to the conduct of the French officers 
and soldiers during this horrible scene, the accounts 
are conflicting. According to one English statement, 
the French officers neglected and even refused 
during the massacre to take any of the measures 



1757.] FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 267 

stipulated in the surrender, and neither officers nor 
troops gave any protection ; according to French 
accounts, Montcalm besought them to kill him, but 
spare the English, who were under his protection, 
while De Levis rushed into the midst of them aeain 
and again, at the peril of his life, to arrest the 
slaughter, many of the French officers received 
wounds in attempting to protect those whom they 
had rescued from the fury of the savages, and Mont- 
calm bade the English defend themselves. 

The great number of the captives seems to 
make it improbable that any very determined effort 
was made to protect them ; but there is no doubt 
that the French officers, with whom rested the re- 
sponsibility of carrying out the terms of the capitu- 
lation, did all that could be done by commands and 
entreaties to stay the fury of the savages, yet would 
not give any order to their soldiers which would 
imperil the friendship of the Indians. But they had 
industriously excited the fury of the savages by 
appealing to their lowest passions, and could not 
control it when their own purposes were accom- 
plished. 

About six hundred of the troops reached Fort 
Edward after escaping to the woods. Montcalm 
released the prisoners still kept by the Indians near 
the French camp, sending them to the fort with a 



268 LOUISBOURG AND [1757. 

powerful escort, and Rigaud de Vaudreuil was sent 
to ransom those who had been carried away. Fort 
William Henry was then razed to the ground, the 
English vessels were d<istroyed, and nine hundred 
men were set at work to load the stores for trans- 
portation. Among them were provisions for six 
months for an army of five thousand men. 

The news of the capture of the fort and the 
slaughter by the Indians aroused the colonies, and 
Webb called loudly for help, fearing an attack on 
Fort Edward. Militia were sent from Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, but the French had departed with- 
out attempting anything further, and the shores of 
Lake George were a solitude. 

Late in November of this year, a force of three 
hundred French and Indians, under an officer named 
Belletre, made a descent upon a settlement on the 
Mohawk called German Flats, near Fort Herkimer. 
Sixty houses, with the mill and other buildings, 
were burned, forty of the settlers were killed, and a 
hundred and fifty were carried away prisoners. A 
large amount of plunder was taken, one Indian, it is 
said, having thirty thousand livres (about six thou- 
sand dollars) in money. The mayor of the village 
lost four hundred thousand livres' worth of property. 

Belletre was entrusted with messages by some of 
the Iroquois to their "father," the Governor of 



I757-] FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 269 

Canada, professing faithfulness, and asking for aid 
to resist the English. Sir William Johnson sent an 
interpreter to some Oneida and Tuscarora Indians 
at the German Flats, to demand why they, having 
knowledge of the intended attack, had not warned 
the people of the settlement. An Oneida chief re- 
plied that they did give warning to the Germans at 
the settlement, telling them to prepare for an at- 
tack, and send word to Warraghiyagey (Sir William 
Johnson) ; that the warning was disregarded and 
the message not sent, the Germans declaring they 
did not fear the enemy ; and that they sent a warn- 
ing, accompanied by a belt of wampum, on the day 
preceding the attack, of which no more notice was 
taken. The Germans present acknowledged the 
truth of the Indian statements before the inter- 
preter. 

Lord Loudoun was in New York when Fort Wil- 
liam Henry was taken. One of his plans was, to 
form an encampment on Long Island, which he 
imagined w^ould in some way protect the country. 
As the winter approached, the troubles about 
quartering soldiers were repeated. Boston refused, 
and Loudoun yielded, after having written, "I have 
ordered the messenger to wait but forty-eight hours 
m Boston ; and if, on his return, I find things not 
settled, I v/ili instantly order into Boston the three 



270 



LOUISBOURG AND [1757- 



regiments from New York, Long Island, and Con- 
necticut ; and if more are wanted,, I have two in the 
Jerseys at hand, besides three in Pennsylvania." 

Thus closed a year of disasters to the British cause 
in America. The French were in actual possession 
of very nearly all they had claimed previous to the 
war. They had the valley of the Mississippi, ex- 
cept a fort on the Upper Tennessee ; they had the 
basin of the St. Lawrence and its tributary waters 
in northeastern New York ; and they had made an 
open passage to the west by the capture of Oswego. 
They had won over many of the Iroquois tribes ; 
and the Cherokees, who still remained faithful to 
the English, showed signs of alienation. Acadia 
was in constant danger from the strong force of men 
and ships at Louisbourg. If they were not checked, 
they would have nothing to do but carry war into 
the heart of the English colonies. At the same 
time, the British had not been more successful in 
Europe. ImbeciHty seemed to control all the acts 
of the administration and the military authorities. 
The Duke of Newcastle was again the nominal head 
of the ministry — Newcastle, the ignorant and incom- 
petent nobleman, who is reported, if not with truth, 
yet with a happy hit at his characteristics, to have 
said, ''Oh, yes, yes, to be sure, Annapolis must be 
defended ; troops must be sent to Annapolis — pray. 



I757-] FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 2'JI 

where is Annapolis ? Cape Breton an island ? Won- 
derful ! Show it to me on the map. So it is, sure 
enough. My dear sir, you always bring us good 
news. I must go and tell the King that Cape Breton 
is an island." 

But William Pitt was made Secretary of State, 
and Newcastle was obliged to leave to him the en- 
tire management of the war. 

The disgraceful defeats in America had roused 
a storm of indignation in England. Loudoun was 
severely censured. " Nothing has been done," said 
Pitt, ''nothing attempted. Every door is open to 
France." Loudoun was recalled ; the quarrels with 
the colonies about raising a common fund for war 
purposes and taxation by Parliament were aban- 
doned ; all provincial officers, from colonels down- 
ward, were made equal in rank to corresponding 
officers in the regular army ; and the colonies were 
asked to raise as many men as possible, and to 
clothe and pay them, Pitt promising that the King 
would recommend Parliament to reimburse them, 
while all munitions of war were to be provided by 
England. 

While vigorous measures were thus taken by the 
English Government, and the outlook for the com- 
ing year was more encouraging, the victorious 
French in Canada began to feci that they were on 



272 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. 

the eve of reverses. The men had left their fields 
untilled, to follow Montcalm ; rain had destroyed 
the crops, so that in some parishes there was not 
enough left to furnish seed ; and France sent no 
supplies. Not only the army, but the entire body 
of inhabitants, were put on a reduced allowance* 
Montcalm predicted that New France must fail 
sooner or later, such were the numbers of the Eng- 
lish, and such the difficulty of obtaining supplies in 
Canada. 



CHAPTER XVL 

LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 

Plan of the Campaign — Siege of Louisbourg — The SuiTender— 
Effect of the Victory — Destruction of French Settlements — Expe- 
dition against Ticonderoga — Skirmish in the Woods — Death of 
Lord Howe — The Attack — ^The Flight — Terror of the General- 
Conduct of Bradstreet. 

For tlie prosecution of the war in 1758, Abcr- 
cromble succeeded Lord Loudoun, with command 
of the forces that were to attack Ticonderoc^a and 
Crown Point. Lord Howe, a young nobleman of 
military ability and great personal popularity, v/as 
made second in command. Admiral Boscawen was 
given charge of the fleet destined for Louisbourg. 
Colonel Jeffrey Amherst, Avho had served with dis- 
tinction in Germany, was made a major-general 
and sent to America to command the land forces 
to cooperate with Boscawen ; and under him were 
Brigadier-Generals Whitmore, Lawrence, and James 
Wolfe. The reduction of Fort Du Quesne was in- 
trusted to Brigadier-General Joseph Forbes, who was 
called, from his obstinacy, **the Head of Iron.'* A 
large number of men was raised in the colonies, and 
twelve thousand were sent from England with Am- 



274 LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. [1758. 

herst, so that the entire British force in America 
was not far from fifty thousand. 

Amherst, delayed by storms, did not reach Hah*- 
fax till the end of May, when he met Boscawen's 
fleet just coming out of the harbor. The Admiral 
had given him up, and, leaving a strong force to 
guard the town, was about to sail without him. On 
the 2d of June, the entire force arrived at Gabarus 
Bay. There were twenty-two ships of the line, and 
fifteen frigates, with one hundred and twenty smaller 
vessels ; and the army amounted to over eleven thou- 
sand men. In the brigade under Wolfe were Isaac 
Barre, the eloquent advocate of the cause of America 
in the British Parliament a few years later, and 
Richard Montgomery, a young Irishman, twenty- 
one years of age, destined to die under the walls of 
Quebec in a later struggle. 

Amherst, hoping to surprise the garrison at Louis- 
bourg, ordered great care and silence to be observed 
in making the landing. But in the morning the 
shore was enveloped in a dense fog, and as it cleared 
away, a high wind drove the surf on the beach so 
heavily as to make landing impossible, and give the 
French time for preparation. Lawrence and Wolfe, 
however, went out in the evening and reconnoitred 
the shore, notwithstanding the dangerous roll of the 
surf. They found that the French had thrown a 



I75S.] LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 275 

chain of posts across the country, and placed bat- 
teries in a position to command the shore where a 
landing would be most likely to be attempted. 

For six days they waited for the waves to subside ; 
on the 8th of June, though the sea was still rolling 
heavily, a landing was found to be possible, and un- 
der cover of a fire from seven of the frigates, the boats 
were rov/ed toward the shore at Cormoran Creek, 
while three sloops were sent past the harbor to draw 
off the attention of the enemy. Many of the boats 
were upset, and some of them broken, by the 
violence of the waves. The French reserved their 
fire till the boats were close to the shore, and then 
poured on them a sudden volley which struck down 
many of the men, and disabled some of the boats. 
Wolfe's flag-staff was shivered ; but, forbidding his 
men to return the fire, he urged on the rowers, and 
leaping into the sea, led his men through the surf. 
In a few minutes the whole division was on shore. 
The French retreated in disorder from their in- 
trenchments, and the British pursued, taking seventy 
prisoners, and only retreating when they came within 
range of the guns of Louisbourg. 

It was not till the nth that the artillery and other 
supplies could be landed. On the 12th the French 
abandoned their outposts and concentrated their 
whole force on the defence of the town. Wolfe 



27<5 LOUISDOURG AND TICONDEROGA, [1753. 

pushed on his men around the northern and eastern 
shores of the bay to Lighthouse Point, a promontory 
on the northeast side of the entrance to the harbor. 
Between this and the town, which occupied another 
promontory on the western side of the liarbor, was 
Goat Island, standing in the middle of the entrance 
to the bay. Here the French had a battery. Wolfe 
placed a battery on Lighthouse Point, from which 
he could command Goat Island and fire upon the 
ships ; and by the 25th the Goat Island, batteiy was 
Silenced, Leaving a detachment in charge of the 
battery at the Point, Wolfe took possession of 
another position, near the town, where he erected 
a battery to play upon the fort and the ships. 

The siege went on for weeks ; but its progress, 
though slow, was steady and sure. The heavy surf 
and the continuous rains interfered with the landing 
of munitions from the fleet and the work of the 
engineers. On the §th of July, six hundred French- 
men made a sally from the fort, and surprised a 
detachment of the English, killing their commander, 
the Earl of Dundonald, and putting his men to 
flight ; but another English detachment coming up, 
the French were driven back with the loss of twenty 
dead and eighty prisoners. 

The commander of the fort, the Chevalier de 
Drucour, held out bravely ; he had under him be- 



175^.] LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA, 277 

tween five and six thousand men — soldiers, sailors, 
and Indians — with five ships of the line, and four 
frigates, three of which he had ordered to be sunk at 
the entrance of the harbor. On the 21st of July, 
his three largest ships of war took fire from a shell. 
On the 22d the citadel was burned, and the town of 
Louisbourg was soon a pile of ruins ; forty of the 
fifty-two cannon were disabled, and on the night of 
the 25th two young English captains took boats of 
the fleet and, boarding the two remaining vessels, set 
fire to one and carried off the other. The celebrated 
Captain James Cook participated in this enterprise. 

With the town in ruins, the cannon silenced, the 
ships gone, and the English ready to sail into the 
harbor, Drucour proposed to capitulate ; but think- 
ing' the terms offered too severe, he would have re- 
fused and submitted to a general assault. The 
clamor of the inhabitants, however, decided hirrl to 
yield. The garrison, with the sailors and marines 
—five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven in all — ■ 
vrere made prisoners of war and sent to England ; 
and Cape Breton and Prince Edward's Island were 
taken possession of by the English troops. 

The capture of Louisbourg, after so many reverses, 
aroused, great enthusiasm throughout America. 
Captain Amherst, brother of the general, carried the 
news to England. Eleven stand of colors, the 



278 LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. [1758. 

trophies of victory, were borne through the streets 
of London by a procession, to. the sound of martial 
music, laid at the feet of the sovereign, and then 
hung up in St. Paul's Cathedral. Boscawen and 
Amherst were honored with official acknowledgment 
of their services ; but the daring and dash of Wolfe 
made him the popular hero of the enterprise. 

In August, seven ships of the line and three 
frigates under Sir Charles Hardy were sent to carry 
a body of soldiers under Wolfe to destroy the French 
settlements along the coast, beginning with the 
villages of the unfortunate Acadians in the north- 
east, and passing along the shores of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence to Gasp6, and thence as far up the river 
as the season would permit, while Monckton was 
sent to the settlements on the Bay of Fundy and the 
River St. John. The villages were laid in ruins, and 
the inhabitants were scattered or carried away. The 
intendant in charge of Mont Louis, on the St. Law- 
rence, offered a hundred and fifty thousand livres to 
save the stores which were gathered at that flourish- 
ing fishing-station ; but there was no authority for 
anything but destruction, and the place was left in 
ruins. 

Amherst had hoped to follow up the capture of 
Louisbourg with that of Quebec. But the length of 
the siege and the lateness of the season made it un- 



1758.] LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 279 

advisable to attempt it, and the news from Lake 
George decided him to move his troops in that 
direction. 

At the beginning of July, 1758, the largest army 
that had ever been gathered on American soil by 
any European nation was encamped on the shore 
of Lake George, preparing for an attack on the 
French fortresses at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 
There were six thousand three hundred and sixty- 
seven regulars, and nine thousand and twenty-four 
provincials. Abercrombie was commander-in-chief, 
and under him was the young and gallant Lord 
Howe, whose brother was afterward commander of 
the British army in America, in the time of the 
Revolution. Among the provincials were Stark, 
Putnam, Bradstreet, and Robert Rogers with his 
famous company of rangers. 

Rogers and his men had made a reconnoissance 
and brought back a plan of the works of Fort 
Carillon and the surrounding country. The fort 
was on a point of land extending into Lake 
Champlain where it is joined by the outlet of 
Lake George. In front of the fort and south 
of it was the little bay formed by the junction 
of the waters ; on the east was Lake Champlain. 
Between the fort and the waters of the lake where 
they widen slightly at the north of the little 



28o LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. [1758. 

peninsula, the ground was low and marshy; the 
only approach by land was on the northwest, and 
there Montcalm, who was in command with about 
three thousand men, had made an intrenchment, 
with an abatis of felled trees, whose parapet was 
covered with interwoven branches. 

On the 5th of July, Abercrombie's army em- 
barked on Lake George in one hundred and thirty- 
five whale-boats and nine hundred small boats. 
The artillery was placed on rafts, and the fleet 
moved down the lake with banners and music. 
The first night they landed at Sabbath-Day Point ; 
but before midnight they reembarked, and by nine 
in the morning had reached the little river which 
forms the outlet of the lake, where they landed and 
formed \\\ columns. 

This river, which is very winding, and interrupted 
by rapids and falls, is nearly four miles long. Th^ 
direct road from Lake George to Ticonderoga 
crossed it by two bridges, and at the bridge nearest 
the fort the French had built saw-mills. Mont- 
calm, when he learned of the presence of the 
English on the lake, sent out two regiments to 
oppose the landing, but afterward recalled them, 
only placing three pickets at the portage, and send- 
ing out three hundred men under De Tr6p6zee for 
observation. 



1758.] LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 281 

Instead of landing on the east side and taking 
the road, the English, seeing that the French had 
burned the bridges, landed on the west side and 
marched through the woods, following the windings 
of the river. Trepezee's men, thus left behind, and 
cut off from the fort, struck into the woods to march 
around the English, and get to their own army 
before the landing should be finished, but they lost 
their way ; and having groped about in the woods 
for twelve hours, they unexpectedly came face to 
face with an advance party of the English under 
Lord Howe, near Trout Brook, or Bernes River. 
In the skirmish that ensued, the Frenchmen 
fought bravely, hand-to-hand, or sheltering them- 
selves behind the forest trees. Lord Howe was one 
of the first to fall, struck by a musket-ball in the 
breast, and died immediately. Maddened by the 
loss of their favorite leader, his men fought still 
more fiercely, and the French were soon over- 
powered. Not more than twenty escaped ; Trepezee 
was mortally wounded ; a hundred and fourteen 
were made prisoners ; the rest fell on the battle-field 
or were drowned in the stream. 

The death of Lord Howe was an irreparable loss to 
Abercrombie's army. All spirit and decision in the 
ordering of its movements seemed to die with him. 
Abercrombie had no generalship, no courage, and 



282 LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. [1758. 

no confidence in the advice of provincial officers. 
With the soldiers, Howe had gained a wonderful 
popularity. A French writer who was at Ticon- 
deroga says of him, calling him, with a Frenchman's 
difficulty in getting hold of English names, "■ Lord 
Ho, or Hau" : 

** Abercrombie had with him a young nobleman 
of great ambition, who was a decided favorite with 
the army, and had succeeded in imparting to it his 
own brave spirit. He had come in April to recon- 
noitre the position of Fort Carillon, and seemed to 
be intrusted with the direction of every plan of 
attack in the campaign. He had induced all the 
officers to dress like the common soldiers, warned 
by Braddock's defeat, where the officers were 
picked out as marks for the bullets. He persuaded 
the men to cut their hair short, and all were supplied 
with a kind of gaiters like those worn by Indians 
and Canadians, and called 7nituzzes. Their haver- 
sacks were rolled in a blanket. They had each 
thirty pounds of meal, a pound of powder, and four 
pounds of balls, besides their cartridge-boxes full ; 
an army thus equipped would need no magazine for 
a month. Their canteens were filled with rum. 
Both officers and men mixed their own meal with a 
little water, and baked it in cakes by putting it on a 
flat stone under the ashes, an arrangement which 



1758.] LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 283 

answered very well for a light expedition. The 
soldier thus found everything necessary for his use, 
and was no more loaded than ordinarily. The 
officers and men had only one shirt apiece, which 
was doubtless of cotton and well made. Lord Ho 
set the example by himself washing his own soiled 
shirt and drying it in the sun." 

It was probably this hearty way of mingling with 
the soldiers, and making the details of camp life and 
equipment interesting, which, united to his brilliant 
courage and his recognition of every man's value, 
inspired the affection of the army. After his death. 
Stark remembered how closely Lord Howe had 
questioned him about the situation of Ticonderoga 
and the approaches to it, as he lay on a bear-skin in 
his tent, that night at Sabbath-Day Point. Massa- 
chusetts erected a monument to his memory in 
Westminster Abbey. 

The next morning, the 7th, Abercrombie took 
his army back to the landing-place. Bradstreet went 
forward with a detachment, rebuilt the bridges, and 
took possession of the saw-mills near the second 
< bridge, about two miles from the fort, which were 
in an advantageous military position. The army 
then followed, and encamped there for the night. 

In the morning, Abercrombie sent out his chief 
engineer and other officers of the regulars, to recon- 



284 LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. [1758. 

noitre. They saw the abatis of felled trees in front 
of the lines ; but, owing to the thick woods and the 
morass, were unable to make very clear observations. 
The engineer and many of the officers judged the 
breastwork to be a very slight defence. Stark 
warned the general that it was stronger than it 
looked. But, with his usual contempt for provin- 
cials, he disregarded the warning, though a minority 
of the British observers agreed with Stark, and de- 
termined to march on the work at once, without 
waiting for the artillery. He was farther persuad- 
ed to move quickly by the report that Montcalm 
already had six thousand men, and was daily ex- 
pecting De Levis with three thousand more from 
the Mohawk. As a matter of fact, De Levis had 
already come in with his eight hundred men, and 
the whole force did not exceed three thousand. 
Montcalm was undecided all the morning whether 
to remain or retreat to Crown Point, but at length 
determined to wait for the attack, and his men were 
marched into the intrenchments during the fore- 
noon. 

Abercrombie's forces were arranged in three lines. 
In the first were Bradstreet's boatmen, with the 
rangers on one side and some companies of light 
infantry on the other. The second was composed 
of Massachusetts militia. Behind these were the 



1758.J LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 285 

regulars, openings being left in the two forward lines 
for their advance. The rear guard was composed 
of Connecticut and New Jersey militia. Abercrom- 
bie, who remained far in the rear, gave orders that 
not a shot should be fired until the breastwork 
should be surmounted. 

At one o'clock on the 8th, the advance began. 
The regulars marched through the spaces between 
the companies of provincials, and led on the attack, 
the grenadier companies first, followed closely by 
Murray's Highlanders. Marching on through the 
underbrush and over the swampy ground, they 
made a dash at the abatis, and then they realized 
the fatal strength of the intrenchments. The aba- 
tis consisted of felled trees, with sharp branches 
pointing outward ; and the top was made still more 
formidable by interwoven branches piled closely 
upon it. Stumps of trees and rubbish of all kinds 
added to the obstruction, which extended for a hun- 
dred yards in front of a breastwork of logs, and 
sloped gradually downward from it toward the as- 
sailants. 

The French held back their fire till the hapless 
regulars were hopelessly entangled among the sharp 
branches and stumps, climbing over the bogs, and 
stumbling among the rubbish. Then came a sud- 
den blaze from muskets and cannon, and hundreds 



286 LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. [1758. 

of them were mowed down. But still they strug- 
gled on ; many of the Highlanders, active and 
lightly equipped, forced their way to the breast- 
work, but only to die by the bayonet. Half of the 
regiment fell, and nearly all of the officers were 
either killed or wounded. Fresh troops rushed on, 
only to meet the same fate ; their musket-balls fell 
harmless against the defences, while the merciless 
fire from behind the breastwork had full play upon 
them. The whole afternoon passed ; Montcalm saw 
every movement, and promptly sent reenforcements 
to such points as needed them. When the English 
attempted to turn the left, aid was sent to the 
left ; when they concentrated between the centre 
and the right, Montcalm was speedily there with a 
reserve. De Levis and Bourlamaque were equally 
vigilant and active. 

During this terrible slaughter, Abercrombie was 
at the saw-mills, and there was apparently no one to 
give general orders or withdraw the men from the 
useless sacrifice ; but it was at length ended by an 
accident. Some of the English, advancing through 
the woods, saw firing directly in front of them, sup- 
posed it to come from the French lines, and re- 
turned it promptly ; but when the smoke cleared 
away, they saw that they had fired upon an advance 
party of their own men. Confused and panic- 



I75S.] LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 287 

stricken, they turned and fled ; the panic spread, 
and the whole army was soon in bewildered flight. 

Abercrombie had lost, in killed and wounded, 
nineteen hundred and forty-four, but his army still 
largely outnumbered Montcalm's, which had lost in 
all three hundred and ninety. It was in reality four 
times as large. According to the number he sup- 
posed Montcalm had, Abercrombie 's was twice as 
great ; and even had De Levis arrived with the three 
thousand men he was wildly reported to have, the 
English force would still have outnumbered the 
French by three thousand. Yet this discrepancy 
was largely offset by the carefully prepared intrench- 
ments. 

The English held Mount Defiance, which com- 
manded the fort, and a battery there might have 
done good execution ; but Abercrombie seems not 
to have had any idea of renewing the attack, but 
rather to have thought only of putting as many 
miles as possible between himself and the foe. 
Hardly had the soldiers reached the saw-mills, and 
begun to rally, after finding they were not pursued, 
when he gave orders for a retreat to the landing- 
place. Supposing he had intelligence of a pursuit 
by the enemy, the troops broke into another flight, 
while apparently the general did not try to arrest 
them, or restore order. A French writer who was 



288 LOUJSBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. [1758. 

at Carillon says Montcalm's men found more than 
five hundred pairs of shoes with buckles in the mud 
on the road to the falls the next day. Arrived at 
the landing-place, they would have thrown them- 
selves into the boats in the same confusion ; but 
Bradstreet was there with a small force that had 
not yet lost their heads, and forming a guard in 
front of the landing-place, would not aliow^ a man 
to embark. Order was restored to some extent, and 
the troops remained at the landing for the night. 
The next morning they crossed the lake, to the site 
of Fort William Henry. Here the general employed 
them in preparing defences, while he sent his artil- 
lery and ammunition to Albany for safety, and even 
ordered them to be sent on to New York. 

Thus disgracefully ended the expedition for which 
such elaborate preparations had been made, and 
from which so much had been expected. The troops 
had fought with unflinching valor for four hours, 
and nothing but the blunders of the general was re- 
sponsible for the failure. The regulars bore the 
brunt of the battle, and more than four fifths of the 
loss fell upon them. The Highlanders lost half 
their number. These men belonged to clans which 
had always been faithful to the cause of the Stuarts, 
and disaffected toward a government which they 
still regarded as an usurpation ; but they had been 



1758] LOUISBOURG AND TICONDEROGA. 289 

formed into regiments by the keen-sighted policy of 
Pitt, and soon showed themselves to be among the 
most daring and effective soldiers that England 
could bring into the field. The Indians brought by 
Johnson took no part in the battle, remaining sim- 
ply as spectators, 

A letter from the Earl of Bute to Pitt, in regard 
to the battle, illustrates the value of the judgment 
passed at home upon the conduct of the generals : 
^'^ I think this check, my dear Pitt," he wrote, 
*' affects you too strongly. The general and the 
troops have done their duty, and appear, by the 
numbers lost, to have fought with the greatest in- 
trepidity, to have tried all that men could do to 
force their way. The commander seems broken- 
hearted at being forced to a retreat." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FRONTENAC AND DU QUESNE. 

Skirmishes near Lake Champlain — Rogers and Putnam — Bradstreet's 
Expedition — Capture of Fort Frontenac — General Forbes in Penn- 
sylvania — Grant's Defeat — Capture of Fort Du Quesne. 

Strengthening their intrenchments, and receiv- 
ing reenforcements of three thousand Canadians un- 
der Rigaud de Vaudreuil, and six hundred Indians, 
the French employed the time after the battle in 
organizing and sending out detachments to surprise 
parties of the English, attack outlying settlements, 
and bring in prisoners, plunder, and scalps. The 
thousands of men lying at Lake George under Ab- 
ercrombie seemed powerless to protect the coun- 
try about them to the distance of twenty miles. 
On the 17th of July, a party of twenty men was cut 
off near Half- Way Brook. On the 27th, a detach- 
ment of five hundred Canadians and Indians made 
an attack near the same place on a convoy of fifty- 
four wagons. Sixteen prisoners, a hundred and ten 
scalps, and a large amount of plunder were the 
result. 



1758.] FRONTENAC AND DUQUESNE. 291 

Rogers was sent out with seven hundred men to 
intercept this party on the way back to the camp, 
but failed to find it, and was then directed to scour 
the country south and east of Lake Champlain. On 
the 8th of August, he was surprised by a force un- 
der a Canadian officer named Marin, and a sharp 
contest ensued. The French at first gained the 
advantage ; but the bravery of Rogers and his ran- 
gers soon turned the fight in their favor. Major 
Israel Putnam and twelve or fourteen others, being 
separated from the rest, were taken prisoners, and 
all but Putnam were murdered. He was tied to a 
tree after an Indian had struck him in the cheek 
with his tomahawk, and wood was piled about him 
and kindled ; but just then he was seen by Marin, 
who hurried to his rescue, took him from the hands 
of the savages, and carried him away a prisoner. A 
few months afterward he was exchanged. 

About this time Fort Stanwix, afterward a post 
of considerable importance, was built by Brigadier- 
General Stanwix, on the site of the present village 
of Rome. It stood on the portage between the 
Mohawk River and Wood Creek, the only spot 
where the water communication between Schenec- 
tady and Oswego was interrupted ; being therefore 
on the highway between the Hudson and Lake On- 
tario, it was a post of military importance. 



2f)2 FRONTENAC AND DU QUESNE. [1758. 

The only thing of consequence accomplished by 
any of the forces under Abercrombie was due to the 
bravery and sagacity of Bradstreet, who applied for 
permission to lead a detachment against Fort 
Frontenac. He had cherished for three years an 
ambition to take this fort, but had not succeeded 
in persuading his superiors that it was possible. A 
council of war now unwillingly gave him permission, 
and twenty-seven hundred provincials were placed 
under his command. They were met at Fort 
Stanwix by one hundred and fifty Iroquois, of whom 
forty-two, under the Onondaga chief, Red Head, 
joined the expedition. In attempting to pass down 
Wood Creek, Bradstreet was seriously hindered by 
the obstructions that General Webb had placed 
in it when he turned back from his tardy march to 
Oswego, after its surrender. The removal of the 
logs from the river involved a great deal of labor. 
Having embarked the artillery and stores, the army 
marched to Oneida Lake, and thence went by 
water to Oswego, where the large wooden cross was 
almost the only memorial they found of the struggle 
of two years before. 

Embarking in open boats at Oswego, they crossed 
the lake and landed within a mile of Frontenac. 
This fort was a quadrangle, about one hundred 
yards square ; it had sixty guns and sixteen small 



I75S.] FRONTENAC AND DUQUESNE. 293 

mortars, thirty of the guns being mounted, and 
contained a large quantity of stores, some of which 
were to be sent to Fort Du Quesne and other 
western posts, and merchandise intended for the 
Indian trade. It was garrisoned by one hundred and 
ten men under an officer named De Noyan. 

The commandant was warned of the threatened 
attack, and sent to the Governor of Canada for re- 
enforcements ; but none came before Bradstreet 
arrived. A French writer intimates that the Govern- 
or neglected to send them on account of personal 
dishke to the commandant of the fort. *' He [the 
commandant] was a philosopher and a poet, and 
sometimes meddled with physic. His aim was to 
be a little spicy, which had gained him some en- 
emies. Vaudreuil, who was not learned, detested 
him, although under some obligations to him. He 
was sixty-eight years old, and infirm, but at this ad- 
vanced age retained all his spirit, and would have 
done honor to the post that had been given him, if 
he had had a large enough force." 

Bradstreet planted a battery behind an epaulc- 
ment of some old intrenchments, and opened fire. 
A breach was soon made, and the next morning 
the garrison surrendered. Besides the stores in the 
fortj the shipping on the lake, consisting of nine 
vessels of from eight to eighteen guns each, fell into 



294 FRONTENAC AND DU QUESNE. [1758. 

the hands of the victors. Some of the vessels were 
heavily laden with furs of great value. 

Abercrombie had given strict orders that the fort 
and stores should be destroyed, although there was 
no apparent reason why it could not have been 
held, and accordingly Bradstreet destroyed all the 
artillery and stores, and all of the vessels but two, 
which he sent to Oswego with the most valuable 
part of the cargoes, and left the fort in ruins. It 
was afterward restored by the French. 

After his success at Louisbourg, Amherst, hear- 
ing of Abercrombie's disaster, decided to go to New 
York with a portion of his army, and do something 
if possible to retrieve the defeat. Landing at Bos- 
ton in September, with five battalions, he went to 
Lake George, held a conference with Abercrombie, 
and, leaving the reenforcements, returned to Hali- 
fax to await orders from England. 

The third expedition planned for the year — that 
against Fort Du Quesne — was in command of 
General Forbes, whose force consisted of twelve 
hundred Highlanders, three hundred and fifty 
Royal Americans, and nearly five thousand pro- 
vincials of Pennsylvania and Virginia, with some 
from South Carolina. The Virginia regiments were 
under the command of Washington, who was ordered 
to Fort Cumberland, arrived with his troops on 



1758] FRONTENAC AND DU QUESNE. 295 

the 2d of July, and at once began cutting a road to 
Raystown (now Bedford) in Pennsylvania, where 
Colonel Bouquet was stationed, awaiting the arrival 
of General Forbes. 

It was decided not to take the army to Fort Du 
Quesne over the road already made, which had been 
followed by Braddock's army, but to open a new 
one through Pennsylvania from Raystown. Wash- 
ington strongly opposed the waste of time ; but the 
Pennsylvanians were determined to have a route to 
the west through their own territory. Braddock's 
despatches had given the officers of the English 
army an idea that the road passed over by his men 
was extremely rugged and difficult, abounding in 
mountains, ravines, and torrents, so that the Penn- 
sylvania traders had little difficulty in persuading 
them that it would be far better to take the pro- 
posed new route, which was fifty miles shorter, and, 
as they represented, less obstructed. 

General Forbes arrived at Raystown with his 
army in September, having been two months on 
the way from Philadelphia. He was very ill, and 
was carried in a litter. Colonel Bouquet was sent 
forward to Loyal Hanna (now Ligonier), about 
forty-five miles from Raystown, with a detachment 
of two thousand men, where he formed a military 
post. 



296 FRONTENAC AND DU QUESNE. [1758. 

In August, intelligence had been received that the 
French had only eight hundred men at Du Quesne, 
including Indians. But now four hundred more, 
under an officer named D'Aubry, had arrived from 
the west. This was unknown to the English, and 
Colonel Bouquet resolved to attempt a brilliant 
achievement — the capture of the fort with his own 
men before the arrival of the main force. Without 
the knowledge of General Forbes, he sent forward 
eight hundred men under Major Grant, some of 
whom were Highlanders, and some Virginia men 
from Washington's force, under Major Lewis. 
Washington had equipped them in light Indian 
hunting-dress, for greater expedition on the march. 

Fort Du Quesne was fifty miles distant from 
Loyal Hanna. Grant was instructed to reconnoitre 
the country around the fort, and gain all the in- 
formation he could about the force of the enemy ; 
but he was anxious, like his superior, to seize the 
glory of victory before Bouquet's men should be 
sent out ; and, moreover, he was ignorant, like most 
of the British officers, of Indian modes of warfare, 
land was confident of victory if he could bring the 
French to an open battle. 

He placed his men on a hill that still bears his 
name, and sent out a party at night to reconnoitre 
the fort. They set fire to a log house near tlie wall, 



1758.] FRONTENAC AND DU QUESNE. 297 

and in the morning, the 14th of September, had the 
drums beaten in several places. The French, 
through their scouts, had long before learned of his 
approach, but kept perfectly quiet, even after this 
display of bravado. Grant then arranged his 
regulars in battle order, leaving Major Lewis behind 
with the provincials to protect the baggage, and 
sent an engineer with a guard to take a plan of the 
works in sight of the fort. Still there was no sign 
from the French ; but just as Grant began to think 
the garrison was overcome with fear, and would give 
up without striking a blow, there was a sudden 
sally of men under D'Aubry, who attacked his 
army in front, while countless Indians rose from 
ambush on both sides. 

Grant and his Highlanders fought with great 
bravery ; but, as had happened with Braddock's 
men, they were thrown into confusion by the fire 
of the concealed Indians. Lewis came up with the 
greater part of the Virginians, who fought cour- 
ageously, but could not save the day. The Indians 
came out from their concealment when the English 
ranks were in hopeless confusion, and fought hand- 
.o-hand with their tomahawks. Grant and Lewis 
were both taken prisoners, and the whole force was 
put to flight. 

When Lewis went forward to the battle with the 



298 FRO N TEN AC AND DU QUESNE. [1758. 

main body of Virginians, he left Captain Bullitt 
with fifty men to guard the baggage. Now, as the 
panic-stricken fugitives fell back, pursued by the 
triumphant savages, Bullitt, having sent the valuable 
baggage still farther back, hastily threw up a barri- 
cade with the rest of the wagons, and rallied a few 
of the flying soldiers behind it. When the Indians 
drew near, a destructive fire was opened from the 
barricade ; many fell, and the rest were checked, 
but more arrived, and they advanced to storm the 
barricade, when Bullitt made a sign of surrender, 
and advanced with his men until they were within 
thirty feet of the enemy ; then they suddenly 
lowered their guns and fired a volley, and rushed 
on with their bayonets. The Indians, in their turn, 
were panic-stricken, and retreated, giving Bullitt a 
chance to collect the scattered fugitives and retreat 
to Loyal Hanna. 

This rash movement cost Bouquet nearly three 
hundred men, of whom twenty-one were ofificers. 
The conduct of the Highlanders, and especially of 
the Virginians, was highly applauded and publicly 
acknowledged by General Forbes, and Bullitt was 
rewarded with a major's commission. 

Forbes reached Loyal Hanna with his army on the 
5th of November, when a council of war was held, 
and it was resolved not to proceed that year, since 



1758.] FRONTENAC AND DU QUESNE. 299 

the season was far advanced, the road yet lacked 
fifty miles of completion, and the Indians had de- 
serted. But some prisoners who were taken and 
brought into camp gave information that led to 
a change of plan ; the garrison was weak and the 
provisions low, and the capture of Fort Frontenac 
by Bradstreet had cut off all hope of supplies. 

The heavy baggage was left behind, and the 
army pushed forward, Washington leading the 
advance. The route was strewn with the dead 
bodies of Grant's men, and it is said that a row of 
stakes was found fixed in the ground, on each of 
which was displayed the head of a Highlander, and 
beneath it his kilts. When the Scotch regiment saw 
this, they broke into a low murmur of rage and fury, 
constantly increasing in volume and violence, as 
they rushed forward, breaking their ranks and bran- 
dishing their claymores, to take swift and terrible 
vengeance. 

But vengeance was beyond their reach. As the 
army marched cautiously on, passing the bleaching 
bones of the unburied dead who had fallen three 
years before on Braddock's disastrous field, and on 
the 24th of November were within a day's march of 
Fort Du Quesne, they heard a heavy explosion 
from the direction of the fort, and saw smoke 
and flames rising into the air. The commandant, 



300 FKONTENAC AND DUQUESNE. [1758. 

having no hope of a successful resistance, with only 
five hundred men and no provisions, had abandoned 
the fort, blown up the magazine, set fire to the 
buildings, and had his men on the way down the 
Ohio in boats. The next day, Washington's troops 
marched in and took possession of the ruined fort. 
The defences were put into the best possible con- 
dition, and Fort Du Quesne was re-named Fort 
Pitt, in honor of the English minister who had 
planned the campaign for the year, and to whose 
vigorous measures its successes had been largely 
due. The name survives in that of the city, Pitts- 
burg, which has grown up around the spot where 
stood the old fort. The Indians submitted quietly 
to the new domination, and the English had at last 
gained a foothold west of the Alleghanies. 

A curious story is told of the device of a High- 
lander, Allan Macpherson, to escape torture by his 
Indian captors. He and several companions had 
been captured near Fort Du Quesne, and he had 
witnessed the horrible tortures undergone by some 
of his comrades before the merciless savages would 
put them to death. He told an interpreter to tell 
them that he knew how to make a medicine from 
herbs which would render the skin proof against all 
kinds of weapons, and he offered to prove it at the 
risk of his own neck. The Indians eagerly con- 



I75S.] FRONTENAC AND DUQUESNE. ' 301 

sented, and, gathering a quantity of herbs, he made 
a decoction which he appHed to his neck ; then lay- 
ing his head on a block, he challenged them to strike. 
One of the strongest warriors came forward and 
dealt a mighty blow. Not until they saw his head 
flying from his shoulders did the savages suspect 
Macpherson's design ; and it is said they were 
so pleased at the Highlander's cunning that they 
remitted the tortures intended for the rest of his 
companions. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

Plan of Operations for the Year — Weakness of the French — Siege and 
Capture of Fort Niagara — Death of Prideaux — Western Forts 
Occupied by the EngUsh — Attack at Oswego — Inaction of General 
Gage — Amherst at Ticonderoga and Crown Point — Operations on 
the Lake — Punishment of the St. Francis Indians — Adventures of 
Rogers. 

For the campaign of 1759, the British Parliament 
voted liberal supplies of men and money, and the 
American colonies, encouraged by the successes of 
the preceding year, raised large numbers of troops. 
Amherst superseded Abercrombie as commander-in- 
chief. The plan for the year embraced three expe- 
ditions : Fort Niagara was to be attacked by Pri- 
deaux, assisted by Sir William Johnson ; Amherst 
was to march his force against Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point ; and Quebec was to be assailed by an 
army under Wolfe and a fleet under Saunders. 
Prideaux and Amherst, after the capture of the forts, 
were to descend the St. Lawrence, take Montreal, 
and join the army before Quebec. 

At this time Canada was much weakened ; its 
resources were nearly exhausted, and the French 



I759-] NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 303 

Government, absorbed with the war in Europe, sent 
but scanty assistance. The occupation of Louis- 
bourg by the English rendered it difficult for ships 
to ascend the St. Lawrence ; a large amount of 
stores had been destroyed at Fort Frontenac, the 
French reverses had cooled the ardor of the Indians, 
and Canada had not a strong reserve force in its 
colonists, as had the British provinces. There were 
not over fifteen thousand Canadians able to bear arms, 
and the French soldiers in the country numbered 
but little more than three thousand. To add to the 
distresses of the Canadians, they had been plundered 
by traders and contractors. It is said that the worst 
swindling was in the interest of a company which 
operated under the name of one of its agents, Cadet. 
Having the contract to furnish the army with pro- 
visions, they collected all the worn-out horses in the 
country, and served them up to the starving soldiers ; 
and from this, whenever the men saw a jaded skele- 
ton of a horse, they called him '' a cadet." 

Vaudreuil, the Governor, having received warning 
from France of the intentions of the English, sent a 
small force to Niagara under the engineer Pouchot, 
not expecting to be able to hold the post, and not 
wishing to sacrifice many men, Or to spare the troops 
from the more important points. Pouchot repaired 
the defences, and when the alarm was given that the 



304 NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAM PLAIN. [1759. 

English were near, sent for men from Presqu' Isle, 
Venango, and Detroit. 

Prideaux, in command of two British regiments, a 
battalion of Royal Americans, two battalions from 
New York, and a train of artillery, was joined by 
Johnson with a detachment of Indians. They began 
their march from Schenectady on the 20th of May, 
and, after a difficult journey, reached Oswego, where 
a detachment under Colonel Haldimand was left to 
take possession and form a post, and the remainder 
of the force embarked on Lake Ontario, and on the 
1st of July landed without opposition about six 
miles east of the mouth of the Niagara. 

The fort was on a narrow promontory between the 
lake and the river. Prideaux made preparations to 
invest it by planting batteries on the land side, 
while his boats cut off the approach by water. To 
a summons on the 8th to surrender, Pouchot 
answered that the King had entrusted him with the 
place ; that he was in condition to defend it ; and 
that if General Prideaux were ever to enter it, he 
should at least gain his esteem by a courageous 
defence, before making any terms with him. 

Prideaux began his trenches on the lOth, and on 
the nth a sally was made from the fort; but the 
English placed themselves in line of battle, and the 
French were oblig-ed to retire. Prideaux was 



1759-] NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 305 

steadily advancing the work, opening trenches and 
placing batteries, when, on the 19th, he was killed by 
the bursting of a shell from a Coehorn mortar in one 
of the trenches, where he had gone to issue orders. ■ 
Amherst appointed General Gage to succeed him, 
but before the arrival of Gage the command de- 
volved upon General Johnson, who carried on the 
siege according to the plans of Prideaux. 

On the 23d, Pouchot, receiving intelligence that 
about sixteen hundred French and Indians were on 
the way to his relief under D'Aubry and De Lignery, 
sent word that if they did not feel strong enough to 
attack the enemy, who were four or five thousand 
strong, they should approach on the other side of 
the river, where the English were only two hundred 
strong, and could not easily be reenforced. After 
driving them back, they could reach the fort by 
bateaux which would be sent over to them. 

The besieged then awaited anxiously the approach 
of the reenforcement, on which all their hopes 
depended. The defences were steadily giving way 
under the heavy fire from the batteries, and the 
garrison were picked off by the marksmen in the ^ 
trenches. Johnson had placed his main army above 
the fort to intercept the approach from the south. 
On the 24th, being informed by scouts that the force 
of French and Indians under D'Aubry and De 



306 NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. [1759. 

Lignery was approaching, he detached a force of 
grenadiers and light infantry and some Mohawks 
under Colonel Massey, to meet them. A regiment 
under Colonel Farquhar was placed midway between 
them and the fort, ready to assist the advance, or go 
to the aid of the besieged in the event of a sally. 

The Mohawks advanced and gave the signal for a 
parley with De Lignery's Indians ; but as it was not 
answered, they fell back and took their station on 
the flanks of the British regiments. D'Aubry formed 
his men, and gave the order for attack. His Ind- 
ians attempted to break up the English ranks by the 
tactics which had succeeded at Braddock's defeat ; 
but the grenadiers scattered them with a few volleys, 
and they disappeared so suddenly that the French 
believed they had previously agreed to desert. 

D'Aubry led on his men to attack the English 
front, but the Mohawks threw themselves on the 
flanks of the French army, and plunged them into 
disorder, while the English made an impetuous 
charge. The French fought desperately for about 
half an hour, when they were broken and completely 
routed. They fled through the woods, and were 
pursued by the victorious army. Many were slain, 
and a few escaped ; the remainder were captured, 
D'Aubry and sixteen other officers being among the 
prisoners. 



I759-] NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 307 

The firing had been heard at the fort in the 
morning, and the besieged had anxiously awaited 
the event of the battle which was to decide the 
fate of the fort. At first the rattle of musketry 
seemed to be drawing near, and the beleaguered 
garrison believed the English were driven before the 
relieving force. Then the noise of the firing fluctu- 
ated, sometimes nearer the fort and again farther 
away and fainter. At length it receded rapidly, grew 
fainter, and ceased. Then the garrison knew that 
their reenforcements had been driven back ; but 
how disastrously they were defeated, they did not 
know till an Onondaga Indian, who had asked leave 
to go out from the fort to fight with them, returned 
with great difficulty through the lines of the 
besiegers at two o'clock, and reported that the sur- 
vivors had all been put to flight, and every of^cer 
was either killed or captured. 

At four o'clock Sir William Johnson sent Major 
Harvey to inform Pouchot of the result of the 
battle, and ask him to surrender without more 
bloodshed. Pouchot professed to doubt the report, 
and sent one of his officers with Major Harvey to 
see if D'Aubry and his subordinates were really in 
the hands of the enemy. On their report, the 
garrison became disorderly, and ready to abandon 
everything in confusion, and it was with difficulty 



3o8 NIAGARA AND LAKE CIJAMPLAIN. [1759. 

that Pouchot restrained them until the terms of 
capitulation were arranged. They marched out 
with the honors of war, on the 25th, and laid down 
their arms on the shore of the lake. They were in 
great fear of the Indians, remembering the scene at 
Fort William Henry ; but Johnson kept his word 
that they should not be molested, and restrained 
the savages from any assault on the conquered 
garrison. 

As the stations beyond Niagara were now com- 
pletely cut off from communication with the east, 
and had given up a large part of their men to join 
D'Aubry, they were no longer capable of resistance. 
Presqu* Isle, Venango, and Le Boeuf were easily 
taken by Colonel Bouquet, who had been sent to 
summon them to surrender. 

Colonel Haldimand had been left at Oswego with 
five or six hundred men. They had not had time 
to intrench themselves fully, but had formed a sort 
of wall about their camp with the barrels of pork 
and flour that had been provided and stored there 
in great profusion, when De la Corne came down 
from La Presentation (Ogdensburg) with five or 
six hundred Canadians and a large body of Indians, 
accompanied by the zealous Abbe Picquet, founder 
of the mission at that point. 

Ilaldimand's men, having no apprehension of 



I759-] NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 309 

danger, were scattered through the woods, cutting 
trees for their intrenchments, when they were fired 
upon by De la Corne's scouts, who then pressed on 
to the camp. What followed is related by a French 
writer who was present : 

" If De la Corne had followed his advance-guard, 
the English would have lost everything. But the 
Abbe Picquet, who heard the beginning of the 
firing, thought it was his duty, before his troops 
should attack, to make a short exhortation and give 
them absolution. This led to the loss of their op- 
portunity ; and the English ran to arms and placed 
themselves behind the barrels. 

** De la Corne arrived after his detachment, who 
were scattered around the English, but did not ap- 
proach nearer, on account of their superiority. He 
wished to have them renew the attack, but some 
Canadians, who would rather retreat than fight, 
cried out that the blow had failed, and, in spite of 
their officers, regained their boats as soon as pos- 
sible. The Abbe Picquet, who tried to rally them, 
was thrown down, when he caught hold of one and 
called out, ' Save at least your chaplain ! ' We sus- 
tained but a small loss, as the English did not 
pursue. Had this body been defeated, Niagara 
might have been saved, for their army could not 
have received the troops and supplies." 



3IO NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. [1759. 

The English lost only two killed and eleven 
wounded. The French commandant at Toronto 
set fire to his buildings and took his small garrison 
to Montreal, as soon as he heard of the fall of 
Niagara. 

Fearing the army from Niagara would next be 
marched on Montreal, Vaudreuil sent De Levis up 
the river to guard the approach to that city from 
the lake. He took possession of Oswegatchie, or 
Ogdensburg, to defend the passes of the St. Law- 
rence, but had only few men. Amherst ordered 
General Gage to go and get possession of that im- 
portant post. But Gage found difficulties and made 
excuses until the season was so far advanced that it 
was impossible. He had been appointed to succeed 
Prideaux, but did not reach Niagara until after 
Johnson had taken the fort. He was afterward, 
in 1763, appointed commander-in-chief of the Brit- 
ish forces in America, and was royal Governor of 
Massachusetts when the Revolutionary War broke 
out. 

For the reduction of the forts at Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point, Amherst had somewhat more than 
eleven thousand men. He began preparations 
early in May at Albany, preparing boats, gathering 
stores, and disciplining the new recruits. He sent 
Major West with a detachment to build a small 



I759-] NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAM PLAIN. 311 

stockade fort between Fort Edward and Lake 
George, and in June his army was slowly moved on 
to encampments near Fort Edward. 

On the 2 1st of June, the general marched six 
thousand troops to the border of the lake, and 
traced the plan of a fort on the spot where Fort 
William Henry had stood. The remainder of the 
troops and the boats were now brought up ; but the 
embarkation did not take place until the 21st of 
July ; but in the interval, the sloop Halifax and a 
floating battery of eight guns which had been sunk 
the previous year, were raised from the lake and 
prepared for service. 

The army moved down the lake in four columns, 
in a fleet of whale-boats, bateaux, and artillery- 
rafts, very much as Abercrombie's men had gone to 
their defeat the year before, and left the boats 
nearly opposite the former landing place. The 
vanguard, pushing on rapidly over the road to the 
falls, met a detachment of French and Indians, 
whom they overpowered and scattered after a slight 
skirmish, and the main body pressed on and took a 
position at the saw-mills. From prisoners it was ^ 
learned that Bourlamaque commanded at Ticon- 
deroga with thirty-four hundred men. Montcalm 
was at Quebec. 

The next morning, Amherst prepared to attack 



312 NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. [1759. 

where the British army had suffered defeat in 1758. 
But the French, conscious of their inability to 
defend the lines against so overwhelming a force, 
abandoned them, and withdrew into the fort, while 
the lines were taken possession of by the grenadiers, 
and the remainder of the army encamped in the 
rear. 

In the centre they found a lofty cross surmounting 
a grave, and on the cross a plate of brass with the 
inscription : 

Pone principcs coriun sicut Orcb et Zchcc et Zal- 
inatina. 

'' Make their nobles like Oreb and Zebah and 
Zalmunna;" — a quotation from the eighty-third 
psalm. 

The French kept up a fire through the 23d, which 
fell harmless on the well-protected lines. Bour- 
lamaque, then, seeing the uselcssncss of a defence, 
silently withdrew most of his men in the night, 
leaving four hundred to keep up the firing and 
conceal the retreat of their comrades. During the 
two following days, they maintained a vigorous fire, 
doing some damage to the British, who were ad- 
vancing their lines toward the fort ; then they too 
abandoned the place, having first loaded and aimed 
the guns, charged some mines, and placed a lighted 
fuse to the powder magazine. 



1 759- J NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 313 

An explosion and the light of the burning works 
assured the English of the retreat of the French, of 
which they had already heard from a deserter, and 
Colonel Haviland pursued them down the lake with 
a few troops, and took sixteen prisoners and some 
boats laden with powder. At daybreak, a sergeant 
volunteered to enter the burning fort, and raise the 
English flag in place of the white banner of 
France. 

After the flames were extinguished, Amherst, 
who had lost about seventy-five men, went to work 
to repair the fortifications and complete the road 
from the lake. Some sunken French boats were 
raised, and a brig was built. Amherst was slowly 
preparing to attack Crown Point, and sent Rogers 
with his rangers to reconnoitre. But on the ist of 
August they learned that the French had abandoned 
that fort also ; and on the i6th that Bourlamaque's 
men were encamped on the Isle aux Noix, at the 
northern extremity of Lake Champlain, command- 
ing the entrance to the Richelieu. They had been 
joined by some small detachments, and numbered 
about thirty-five hundred men. 

Amherst spent his time fortifying Crown Point, 
and building boats and rafts, and on the nth of 
October he had the brig from Ticonderoga, a raft 
for artillery, and a new sloop ready to sail, and em- 



314 NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. [1759. 

barked his troops. One boat with twenty-one men 
was captured ; and with this prize the French ves- 
sels disappeared, and carefully avoided an action. 
Three of them, chased by Amherst's vessels under 
Captain Loring, were so hard pressed that the crews 
ran one aground and sank the others. But a storm 
with contrary winds kept back the English vessels. 
It was too late to descend to Montreal and go to the 
help of Wolfe ; the time for that had been passed 
in elaborate and useless preparations. 

The repair of the forts, if not unnecessary, was 
not at all pressing. It was not probable that the 
French with their exhausted army would very soon 
attempt to recover the forts on Lake Champlain ; if 
the English were to conquer and keep Canada, they 
would be of no use ; if another campaign had still 
to be fought, there would be time enough to 
fortify. The immediate and pressing need was, to 
sustain Wolfe. 

Amherst was very fortunate in his enterprises ; he 
had overwhelming numbers and an exhausted foe, 
so that his generalship was not put to any severe 
test. He was cautious to excess, slow and sure in 
what he attempted ; the trouble was, that he did 
not attempt enough. With the help of the great 
army lying useless at Lake Champlain, Wolfe's 
victory might possibly have been more speedy, 



I759-] NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 315 

and would almost certainly have closed the strug- 



gle. 



In September, General Amherst sent Captain 
Kennedy with a flag of truce to offer peace and 
friendship to the St. Francis Indians, living at the 
lake of that name. These Indians were steadfast 
friends of the French, and had long harassed the 
frontier settlements of New England. Rogers, says 
that, to his own knowledge, they had killed or carried 
off four hundred persons within six years. They 
kept Captain Kennedy and his whole escort as 
prisoners, and sent no answer to the message. 

Amherst then sent Robert Rogers with two hun- 
dred men to attack their settlements, with orders 
to take complete vengeance on the warriors for 
their cowardly attacks on defenceless settlements, 
but by no means to injure any women or children. 

St. Francis is within three miles of the St. 
Lawrence, and about midway between Montreal 
and Quebec. The route lay through an almost un- 
broken forest. ^' We marched," says Rogers in his 
journal, '^ nine days through wet, sunken ground, 
the water most of the way near a foot deep ; it 
being a spruce bog. When we encamped at night, 
we had no way to secure ourselves from the water 
but by cutting the boughs of trees, and with them 
erecting a kind of hammocks." It was twenty-two 



^i6 NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. [1759. 

days before they came in sight of the Indian town, 
and the party was by that time reduced one fourth 
through the hardships and accidents of the march. 

In the evening, Rogers reconnoitred the town. 
The warriors were holding a feast, dancing, singing, 
and carousing. Waiting till they had lain down to 
sleep, at three o'clock in the morning, Rogers 
marched his men within five hundred yards of the 
village, where they laid aside their baggage and 
made ready for the attack. 

Just before sunrise he gave the order, and his 
men burst into the sleeping town. The Indians, 
who had gone to sleep without placing sentinels, 
were completely surprised. Bewildered with their 
excesses and the sudden awakening, they could 
make no resistance. Many were slain in their sleep, 
others struck down as they were attempting to fly. 
Some reached the river and embarked in canoes ; 
but they were pursued, and the boats were sunk. 
Some concealed themselves in the cellars and lofts 
of their houses, and were consumed in the flames 
when the town was fired. By seven o'clock in the 
morning the ruin was complete. All the houses 
were burned but three, which were saved because 
they were stored with corn, that Rogers needed for 
his men. Two hundred Indians had been killed, 
and twenty women and children were made pris- 



I759-] NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMP LAIN. 317 

oners, of whom all but five were released. Rogers 
had lost but one friendly Indian killed, and a 
captain and six privates wounded. 

He was now, however, in a very dangerous 
position, for he learned that there was a party of 
three hundred Frenchmen with some Indians below 
him on the river, that his boats had been taken, and 
that a smaller force was lying in wait for him farther 
up the stream. There seemed to be no way to 
extricate his men from this peril except by following 
the upper branches of the Connecticut, and de- 
scending that river to Fort Number Four. The 
route was rugged and difficult, and they were poorly 
supplied with provisions. 

They had marched eight days, and their food was 
nearly exhausted, when Rogers divided them into 
small companies to take different routes and sus- 
tain themselves on the way as best they could. All 
were to meet at the mouth of the Ammonoosuc, 
where provisions were expected ; but when Rogers's 
own party reached the place, they were not there. 
Rogers, with three others, embarked on a pine raft 
and dropped down to Fort Number Four, whence 
he speedily sent food to the starving men above. 
One party lost the way, and was four days without 
food ; some died, and some lost their reason ; the 
remnant, after devouring their leather straps and 



3i8 NIAGARA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. [1759. 

the covers of their cartridge-boxes, found a few 
roots that kept them aHve until they reached the 
Connecticut and met one of the supply-boats sent 
by Rogers. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 

Situation of the City — Sailing of the English Fleet — Officers and 
Forces of the English — Advance of Durell — Mistake of the French 
— First Blow — Passage up the River — Skirmish with Peasants — 
Attempts to Fire the Fleet — Incidents of the Siege-=^Occupation 
of the East Bank of the Montmorenci by the English — The 
Scholars' Battle — Firing of the City — Passage of Ships by the 
Town — Battle of Montmorenci. 

To watch for and signal the approach of the 
British fleet which was hourly expected at Quebec, 
three stations were chosen by the French : the first 
at Isle du Portage, the second on a height near Ka- 
mouraska, and the third on the Isle of Orleans. 

On the east, and partially on the south of the 
promontory on which the city is built, sweeps 'the 
deep and rapid current of the St. Lawrence, at the 
north is the embouchure of the St. Charles, and 
slightly to the west a sudden curve of the same 
stream. The promontory is very steep along the 
St. Lawrence, and may be described as a bluff vary- 
ing in height from one hundred and sixty to three 
hundred feet. In that direction nature seemed to 
have anticipated the work of the military engineer. 
The Lower Town, at the foot of the cliff, was defend- 



320 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

ed by batteries on the quays ; and the avenues lead- 
ino" from the river were barricaded. The communica- 
tion between the Lower Town and the Upper Town 
was secured by a strong picketing, and commanded 
by a battery. 

To prevent the approach of the enemy from the 
valley of the St. Charles, it was determined to close 
the entry to that stream. At a point opposite the 
gate of the bishop's palace, a boom was run across, 
consisting of logs chained together and kept in place 
by anchors. Above this boom three merchant ves- 
sels were sunk ; and on a platform built upon them 
was placed a battery of heavy guns, commanding 
the entire bay. In front of the boom five barges 
were set, each armed with a cannon. On the left 
bank was placed a battery of four guns to protect 
the whole. Farther up, near the Charlesbourg road, 
a bridge of boats was thrown across the St. Charles, 
and defended at each end by a horn-work. 

On the city side, a line of intrenchments, with 
artillery, ran from the bridge to the palace gate. 
From the opposite bank of the St. Charles, the 
northern shore of the St. Lawrence, to the mouth of 
the Montmorenci, eight miles below, was intrenched 
and at all accessible points fortified, the line being 
continued for a short distance along the right bank 
of the Montmorenci. 



1 759-] ' l^ii^ SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 321 

On the landward side, the defence of the city was 
not formidable, consisting only of a rampart of 
moderate height, with neither parapet nor embra- 
sures, and unprotected by fosse or glacis. For nine 
miles above the city, every apparently accessible 
point was intrenched and guarded ; among others the 
spot then called the Anse du Foulon (the fuller's 
bay), but now known as Wolfe's Cove. 

There were c^athered for the defence of Quebec 
about thirteen thousand men, of whom only six 
worn battalions were French regulars, the rest being 
raw Canadian militia ; so that the generous Wolfe 
afterward hesitated to call such a force an army. A 
council of war was held toward the close of May, 
when the order of battle was issued and general reg- 
ulations given for the conduct of the campaign. 

Vauquelin was made commander of the bay, with 
authority over craft of all kinds. The army occu- 
pied its intrenched camp from the redoubt on the 
left bank of the St. Charles to a point on the Mont- 
morenci above the great falls. The right, consist- 
ine: of the bri<jades of Quebec and Three Rivers un- 
der St. Ours and De Borne, forty-four hundred and 
twenty men in all, was placed along the plain to the 
river Beauport. The centre consisted of the regu- 
lars, two thousand strong, under Senezergues, and 
the Montreal militia, eleven hundred and fifty strong, 



32 2 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. . [i759- 

under Prudhomme, and was placed on the heights 
of Beauport. The brigade of the Island of Mont- 
real, under Herbin, twenty-three hundred strong, 
formed the left, and was placed along the high 
ridge down the St. Lawrence. A reserve force of 
three hundred and fifty cavalry, fourteen hundred 
volunteers of Canada and Acadia, and four hundred 
and fifty Indians, under Boishebert, stretched down 
to the Montmorenci and along its right bank. The 
artillery was under the command of Mercier, and 
the militia of the city was left as a garrison under 
the king's lieutenant, De Ramsay. 

It was the opinion of the French commander that 
no attack would be made directly on the town from 
the river front, but that an attempt would be made 
to pierce his extended lines somewhere between the 
Montmorenci and Beauport River, and possibly be- 
tween the latter and the left bank of the St. Charles. 
For the event of a successful assault in either neigh- 
borhood — and Montcalm was by no means over- 
confident — lines of retreat were carefully marked 
out, all arranged with the general design of swing- 
ing the army back behind the St. Charles as a new 
line of defence, with the right on the city fortifica- 
tions, and the left extended as far as possible. 

That the authorities were not sanguine, is clear 
from the final sentence of their instructions : *' It is 



1759] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 323 

incumbent on us to exert our most strenuous efforts 
to defend and preserve Quebec, or at least to retard 
the reduction of it as long as possible, because it is 
evident that the fate of the colony will depend 
entirely on that of its capital." 

These precautions were taken in good time. In 
the middle of February, a powerful squadron set 
sail from England, under command of Admiral 
Saunders, described by Walpole as **a pattern of 
most sturdy bravery united with the most unaffected 
modesty." With him sailed General James Wolfe, 
chosen to command the expedition to Quebec. The 
fleet arrived off Louisbourg on the 21st of April, 
but the port was blocked with ice, and the squadron 
rendezvoused at Halifax, and proceeded to Louis- 
bourg a few days later. The naval force consisted 
of twenty-two ships of the line, five frigates, and 
nineteen smaller war-vessels, together with a crowd 
of transports, on which the land forces were embarked 
on the 1st of June. These were divided into three 
brigades, under command of Generals Monckton, 
Townshend, and Murray, all in the prime of man- 
hood, eager for personal glory and zealous in the 
service of their country. 

Colonel Guy Carleton, afterward Lord Dorchester, 
was quartermaster-general, Major Isaac Barre was 
adjutant-general, and Richard Montgomery was 



324 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC, [1759. 

among the captains. The whole military force is 
commonly estimated at something more than eight 
thousand men, though some French writers put its 
strength at eleven thousand. It might be described 
as a corps of picked men ; braver or better dis- 
ciplined troops have seldom embarked in a more 
hazardous enterprise, or been more ably com- 
manded. 

Admiral Durell was sent forward with the van, in 
the hope that he would intercept a squadron of 
supply-ships from France, but was too late. The 
whole fleet got under way by June 4th and joined 
Durell on the 23d, at Isle aux Coudres. It is said 
that as the vessels of the latter hove in sight at this 
point on their way up the river, they were flying the 
French flag ; and the watchers at the signal-stations, 
seeing the welcome ensign, despatched hasty ex- 
presses to Quebec to announce that succor was at 
hand. But after pilots had put off to the ships in 
canoes, the white colors were struck, and the Union 
Jack run up in their place, to the dismay of the 
Canadians along the shore. A priest who saw the 
change through a glass dropped dead at the sight, 
from the sudden revulsion of feeling. On the 26th 
the squadron anchored off the Isle of Orleans. 

The passage up the river had been unusually 
fortunate, and surprised the French greatly, since 



1 759-] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC, 325 

they had taken pains to remove the buoys from the 
channel, and expected that the heavy ships of the 
line would run aground at various difficult points. 
The rapidity of the passage was long explained by 
the fact that charts of the St. Lawrence had been 
found in one of two French vessels captured by 
Admiral Durell near the mouth of the river ; but 
French authorities assert that a certain Denis de 
Vitr6, captain of a French frigate taken during the 
war, consented to pilot the fleet to Quebec for a 
commission in the British navy. 

During the night of the 26th forty rangers landed 
on the island, and, pushing cautiously into the 
interior, came upon a party of armed peasants, en- 
gaged in burying their valuables. There was a 
hasty skirmish, in which both parties were badly 
frightened ; a fight in the woods at midnight 
between a band of marauders and a party of men 
concealing their treasures being by no means a 
cheerful kind of encounter. 

The next day troops were landed, debarking at a 
cove under the Church of St. Lawrence, on the 
walls of which was a placard asking ''the worthy 
officers of the British army ' ' that the place might 
be spared. Wolfe probably pushed on at once to 
the point of the island nearest Quebec. 

Above the island, and nearly opposite the city, 



326 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC, [1759. 

lay Point Levi, the only unprotected spot within 
easy reach of the invaders. Montcalm had urged 
in the council of war that it should be fortified and 
garrisoned with four thousand troops, but his 
opinion was overruled by the Governor-General. 
Wolfe instantly chose it as an available point from 
which to attack Quebec, though it was said to be 
held by a strong detachment, and he also selected the 
spot on which he stood as the site of fortifications 
to cover the hospitals and army-stores, which might 
find perfect security in that beautiful island with the 
fleet at anchor in front. 

The day had been stormy, but the evening came 
on clear though dark ; and the French chose it for 
their first attempt to burn the English fleet. They 
put fire-ships afloat with the ebbing tide, each 
laden with grenades, shells, useless muskets loaded 
to the muzzle, and tar-barrels. As they were swept 
in the direction of the transports, the flames broke 
out among them and spread rapidly and fiercely, to 
the accompaniment of a random fusillade. A panic 
arose among the soldiers on the beach, for the 
unaccustomed character of the danger terrified 
them ; but the sailors were cool, and ready with a 
remedy. Well-manned boats set out, and, after 
waiting for the subsidence of the irregular firing, 
pushed on and grappled the fire-ships, turning them 



1759-] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 327 

ashore, where they burned harmlessly away, and 
served as a cheerful illumination to the warlike scene. 

On the morning of the 28th, Wolfe issued a 
proclamation to the inhabitants of Canada. He 
set forth the determination of the English king 
to deprive France of her American settlements ; 
enumerated the advantages of Great Britain in the 
struggle ; alluded to the cruelties practised by the 
French on the English colonies, as justifying severe 
reprisals, but promised the most considerate treat- 
ment if the Canadians would accept the protection 
of England, and abandon France, which had practi- 
cally abandoned them. Speaking in the name of his 
master, he said : ''It is not against the industrious 
peasants, their wives and children, nor against the 
ministers of religion, that he designs making war. 
He laments the misfortunes to which this quarrel 
exposes them, and promises them his protection, 
offers to maintain them in their possessions and 
permit them to follow the worship of their religion, 
provided that they do not take any part in the 
differences between the two crowns, directly or 
indirectly." 

Of course all these fair promises were worthless, 
for the conditions on which they were made 
were not such as the Canadians were very 
likely to comply with. As a natural consequence. 



328 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

the struggle was destined to degenerate into a cruel 
and bloody one at all points save the regular field of 
battle, where it was bloody without being unneces- 
sarily cruel. 

On the night of the 29th of June, Monckton, to 
whom the movement against Point Levi was en- 
trusted, sent over a detachment which took pos- 
session of Beaumont Church and barricaded it. 
Early in the morning more men passed over, and 
before evening the British troops had possession 
of the pretty village of Point Levi. The opposition 
amounted to nothing more than skirmishing, as the 
force in possession of the position was neither strong 
enough nor skilful enough to make an obstinate 
defence, though the nature of the ground was 
favorable to it. 

During the morning occurred one of those trage- 
dies that exhibit the brutality of war. A party of 
rangers had pushed forward from Beaumont Church 
to reconnoitre, and had taken possession of a large 
and fine, but apparently deserted, farm-house. The 
soldiers heard the sound of voices, and, after a hasty 
search, set fire to the buildings and fell back, but 
were recalled by the shrieks of women and children 
Avho had hidden in the cellar and were perishing in 
the flames. We are told that they worked gallantly 
lliough ineffectively to rescue their victims, and it 



1759-] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 329 

would be pleasant to believe the best ; but so many 
strange things happened during the campaign that 
the historian grows weary of trying to explain away 
atrocitiesj 

On the morning of July ist, the French pushed 
over their floating batteries to attack the post at 
Point Levi, but the frigate Trent interposed, and 
easily drove them off. Monckton's and Townshend's 
men were set at work on the heights opposite Que- 
bec and on the western end of the island, raising 
fortifications and planting batteries ; and by the 9th 
everything was ready for action at those places. 

In the mean while, scouting and skirmishing went 
on constantly. Major Scott pushed up along the 
right bank of the St. Lawrence as far as the Chau- 
di^re, but to no purpose. On one occasion, about 
twenty of the command, under a lieutenant, coming 
across a man and his three sons in a log hut, drag- 
ged them off out of pure wantonness, though two of 
the boys were mere children. The man and the 
oldest boy, a lad of fifteen, went quietly enough, 
but the frightened children screamed convulsive- 
ly ; and the scouting-party grew alarmed lest the 
screams should attract pursuit. It is said that they 
actually saw a band of Indians on their trail and 
heard the war-whoop ringing through the woods. 
They endeavored to calm the children, but the poor 



330 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

things screamed the louder ; then they tried to cast 
them off in the woods, but they clung to their captors 
all the tighter ; and, as a last resource, to silence 
their hysterical sobs, the soldiers murdered them. 

With his supplies in safety and a point secured 
from which an active bombardment could be main- 
tained against the city, Wolfe began his first effort 
to break the enemy's lines. Under cover of the 
fleet, which swung into place on the 9th of July, 
and commanded the French position along the river 
below the city, Wolfe moved the bulk of his army, 
under Townshend and Murray, to the north bank of 
the St. Lawrence, just below the mouth of the Mont- 
morenci. The east or left bank of this stream is 
higher than the opposite one ; and along these 
heights the British troops encamped, facing the 
left of the French line, with nothing but the river 
intervening. Artillery was placed in position, and 
the men were ordered to intrench. 

On the morning of the 10th, Captain Bank's com- 
pany of rangers, which had been sent into the 
woods to protect men engaged in making fascines, 
was suddenly attacked by Indians, and nearly de- 
stroyed. The action took place so close to the lines 
that the men who rushed to the rescue could actually 
see the savages scalping their dead comrades and 
murdering the wounded. 



I759-] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC, 331 

Wolfe reconnoitred the Montmorenci upward in 
the hope of finding a crossing that he might force, 
and so turn the left of the French position, but 
without success. There were two Indian attacks on 
the reconnoitring party, but they were easily re- 
pulsed, though not without the loss of forty officers 
and men. 

It was found that the only pathway to the French 
lines on the Montmorenci side lay through the ford 
below the falls, which was practicable at low tide, 
and might be covered by the fire of the batteries on 
the heights above, and of such light-draught vessels 
as could get close to the shore. The prospect for 
an attack at this point was so unpromising, that 
Wolfe waited until he should have studied other 
points before he determined to strike there. It is 
said that Montcalm, when urged by De Levis to at- 
tempt to dislodge his enemy, remarked : ** While 
there, he cannot hurt us. Let him amuse himself." 

Meanwhile, on the night of the 1 2th of July, a body 
of sixteen hundred French, under Dumas, crossed 
the St. Lawrence above the city and set out for 
Point Levi, doubtless with the expectation of find- 
ing it held by a weak force. The French marched 
in two columns, and, in the excitement of the night 
movement, the rear body mistook that in front for 
the enemy, and poured a volley into it, which was 



2,^2 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

promptly returned. There was an instant panic, 
and both parties set off in the wildest disorder for 
the boats, reaching the beach in time to recross the 
river early in the morning of the 13th, with a loss of 
seventy killed and wounded. Wolfe regretted that 
they got away without making an attack and giving 
him an opportunity to defeat them. This affair is 
known among Canadians as " The Scholars' Battle," 
because the firing was begun by some of the boys 
from the city schools, who were in the ranks. 

A lively bombardment of the city followed, which 
was especially effective from the Point Levi batteries, 
and on the i6th the town was set on fire. The fir- 
ing was renewed at intervals, and four times the city 
was in flames. To sum up at once the results of 
weeks of cannonading, it may be said, in the words 
of Wolfe himself, that the Upper Town was consid- 
erably damaged, and the Lower Town entirely de- 
stroyed. The destruction fell heaviest upon the 
church and private individuals ; the cathedral and 
most of the finest residences were in ruins within a 
month. Of course all this was useless, except in so 
far as it kept up the appearance of activity on the 
part of the besiegers. It did not at all affect the 
military strength of the place. 

On the night of the 1 8th of July occurred one of 
the most significant events of the expedition. Two 



1759.] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. ZZl 

men-of-war, two armed sloops, and two transports 
filled with troops, the whole under the command of 
Captain Pons, ran up the river past the town, escap- 
ing without injury, as the French failed to notice 
them in time to bring their guns to bear ; and the 
next day two hapless sentinels who were held re- 
sponsible were hanged in sight of both armies. A 
battery in position at Sillery dropped a few shots 
among the English vessels and made them move on 
up the river, and the gunners of the city, grown un- 
usually vigilant, struck the mast out of Wolfe's 
barge, which was skirting the southern shore to join 
the ships that had run the gauntlet. 

The passage of the forts opened up the whole 
river, and rendered the English masters of the 
stream above and below. But the first fruits of the 
achievement were not promising. " This enabled 
me," said Wolfe in his report to Pitt, "to recon- 
noitre the country above, where I found the same 
attention on the enemy's side, and great difficulties 
on ours, arising from the nature of the ground, and 
the obstacles to our communication -vvith the fleet. 
But what I feared most was, that if he should land 
between the town and the River Cap Rouge, the 
body first landed could not be reenforced before they 
were attacked by the enemy's whole army." 

He thought of landing three miles above the 



334 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

town, but the enemy brought cannon and a mortar to 
play on the shipping. * ' And, ' ' to use his own words, 
" as it must have been many hours before we could 
attack them — even supposing a favorable night for 
the boats to pass by the town unhurt — it seemed so 
hazardous that I thought best to desist." 

^Merely to divert the attention of the enemy, 
Wolfe sent Colonel Carleton up the river with the 
troops that had already passed the town. On the 
22d he landed at Point aux Trembles, dispersed a 
party of Indians, captured a few civilians, and pro- 
cured correspondence, which plainly showed that 
the people in Quebec were hungr}* and disheartened, 
and almost as disgusted with the defence as the 
English were with the attack. 

Wolfe returned to the position on the Mont- 
morenci after his trip above the town, convinced 
that he would have to make an attempt to break 
into Montcalm's intrenched camp somewhere be- 
tween the St. Charles and the Montmorenci. "I 
^now resolved," he says, " to take the first opportu- 
nity which presented itself of attacking the enemy, 
though posted to great advantage and everywhere 
prepared to receive us." If he was somewhat 
daunted at the prospect, it is probable that there 
was much discontent and discouragement through- 
out the expedition. Indeed, there are extant let- 



I759-] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. ZZS 

ters written to the Governor of Nova Scotia by a 
minister who accompanied the expedition, express- 
ing the greatest contempt for the capacity of the 
commander-in-chief, and repeating the criticisms on 
his conduct which were current on shipboard. 

But the young general was not the man to give 
up an enterprise merely because it looked desperate. 
On the shore of the St. Lawrence, near the mouth 
of the Montmorenci, was a detached redoubt, ap- 
parently out of reach of musketry' from the hill, 
and Wolfe determined to make this the key of an 
attack. His design was to seize it ; then, if the 
French disputed its possession, a general engage- 
ment would be brought on, which was what he 
aimed at. If they gave it up without a struggle, it 
might afford a point from which to reconnoitre their 
lines in security. 

As the water shoaled along the northern shore so 
that the men-of-war could not get into position to 
bring their guns to bear, the admiral armed two 
light-draught transports which might be run aground 
to cover a descent on the redoubt, and the frigate 
Centurion was brought close to the mouth of the 
Montmorenci to cover the ford below the falls. 
The artillery on the height along the left bank of 
that stream was placed in position to enfilade the 
left of the enemy's intrenchments. 



336 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

The plan of action was, to put a part of Monck- 
ton's brigade from Point Levi, and the grenadiers of 
the army, on the boats, and make a dash for the re- 
doubt ; while the brigades of Townshend and Mur- 
ray were to be ready to march from their camp on 
the left bank of the Montmorenci, and cross the 
ford in support of their comrades. 

At ten o'clock in the forenoon of July 31st, the 
15th and 78th regiments of Monckton's brigade, 
thirteen companies of grenadiers, and two hundred 
Royal Americans, embarked in small boats, and the 
flotilla moved into the northern channel of the St. 
Lawrence. The two armed transports, Wolfe being 
on one of them, were run aground at about eleven 
o'clock ; and the cannon from those vessels, from 
the Centurioiiy and from all the fleet, from the heights 
of Montmorenci and from Point Levi, opened fire, 
every available gun in the circle of the British posi- 
tion about Quebec joining in the chorus. 

Close inspection showed Wolfe that the detached 
redoubt was really covered by fire from the French 
lines, and that musketry from the grounded vessels 
would be of no avail in helping the attack. This 
was a disappointment ; but he was not to be divert- 
ed from his purpose. Some delay was occasioned 
by a feint on the left of the French line, which 
looked like a movement to cross the Montmorenci 



I759-] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 337 

above the falls, and make a counter attack ; but 
this was checked by a display of the 48th regiment 
in motion beyond Point Levi, which caused Mont- 
calm to send two battalions to guard against a cross- 
ing above the town. 

It was four o'clock in the afternoon when Wolfe 
signalled for a renewal of the cannonade, and at five 
he ran up a red flag at the mizzen peak of one of the 
stranded transports, as the sign to advance. The 
flotilla dashed forward with a \vill, and the troops 
of Townshend and Murray set out for the ford. 
The French met the advance of the boats with a 
lively shower of shot and shell, which, however, did 
little damage ; but the advance was checked by a 
reef running out from the shore, on which many of 
the small craft ran aground ; and, as a consequence, 
the whole flotilla of fifteen hundred boats was 
thrown into confusion. 

Order was soon restored, and the general and sev- 
eral naval officers took a flat-bottomed boat, and ex- 
amined the shore for a landing-place, signalling in 
the mean time for Townshend to halt. An opening 
in the reef v/as found in the course of half an hour, 
and the flotilla was put in motion once more. The 
grenadiers and Royal Americans were first on 
shore. The orders were for the grenadiers to form 
in four divisions, wait for the landing of Monckton's 



338 THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. [1759- 

troops and the approach of Townshend to within 
supporting distance, and then attack. 

But they attacked without waiting or forming— 
"ran on," to use Wolfe's words, "toward the 
enemy's intrenchments in the utmost disorder and 
confusion. ' ' This excess of valor and lack of steadi- 
ness was fatal. The French had abandoned the de- 
tached redoubt, and the mass of grenadiers pushed 
boldly up the slope at the intrenchments. It was 
an assault which would have been useless, even 
if successful, as Monckton had not landed, and 
Townshend and Murray were not within reach ; but 
it was not destined to succeed. The Canadians re- 
ceived the grenadiers with a close and effective fire, 
which not only checked their advance, but drove 
them back in dismay, leaving some scores of scarlet- 
clad bodies along the green hill-side. 

The grenadiers sought shelter behind the aban- 
doned redoubt, while their officers exposed them- 
selves to no purpose, in the endeavor to re-form 
them under fire. "I saw," says Wolfe, "the 
absolute necessity of calling them off, that they 
might form themselves behind Brigadier Monck- 
ton's corps, which was now landed and drawn up on 
the beach in extreme good order." 

Not only were the grenadiers withdrawn, but it 
was resolved to abandon the attack. It was grow- 



I759-] THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 339 

ing late in the evening, the state of the tide was 
such that the line of retreat by the ford would be 
cut ofif in case of disaster, and a storm which had 
been threatening for some time broke in fury. But 
these were, perhaps, the mere pretexts for a re- 
treat. The main reason was, the rapid repulse of 
the picked troops of the army, who were beaten 
without getting an opportunity to fight. 

The French made no attempt to interrupt the 
movement, as Monckton's men reembarked, and 
Townshend withdrew, but " some of their savages," 
says Wolfe, " came down to murder such wounded 
as could not be brought off, and to scalp the dead, 
as their custom is." 

Wolfe lost in this affair thirty-three ofHcers and 
four hundred and ten men, killed or wounded. In 
his honest and straightforward account, he argues 
that the place chosen for the attack was well covered 
by British artillery, and afforded opportunity for 
the employment of all the troops at once, and the 
line of retreat, in case of repulse, was secure. The 
disadvantages were no less marked. " The beach 
upon which the troops were drawn up was," he 
said, *' of deep mud with holes, and cut by several 
gullies, the hill to be ascended very steep and not 
everywhere practicable, the enemy remaining in 
their intrenchments, and their fire hot. If the at- 



34© THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC, [1759. 

tack had succeeded, our loss must certainly have 
been great and theirs inconsiderable, from the shelter 
which the neighboring woods afforded them. The 
River St. Charles still remained to be passed before 
the town was invested. All these circumstances I 
considered ; but the desire to act in conformity with 
the King's instructions induced me to make this 
trial, persuaded that a victorious army finds no diffi- 
culties. " In a general order, the commander re- 
buked the grenadiers sharply for their undisciplined 
enthusiasm. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 

Attacks of the French on Scouting Parties — Reprisals by the English 
— Attempt by Murray — Illness of Wolfe — Townshend's Plan — 
Wolfe's Opinion of it — Montcalm's Prediction — Transfer of the 
Army — The Anse du Foulon, or Wolfe's Cove — Landing and 
Ascent of the Troops — Diversion at Beauport — Position on the 
Plains of Abraham — Arrival of Montcalm — Arrangement and 
Numbers of the Troops — The Battle of the Plains of Abraham — 
Rout of the French — Death of Wolfe — Death of Montcalm. 

Notwithstanding Wolfe's proclamation en- 
joining neutrality upon the Canadians, they with- 
stood the depredations of the soldiery, and in some 
instances joined with the Indians in murdering and 
scalping scouting-parties. A protest from Wolfe to 
Montcalm brought the usual answer that the French 
officers could not control their wild auxiliaries — the 
same answer that in after-years the British them- 
selves used to make when American commanders 
complained of Indian atrocities. As a curious meas- 
ure of retaliation, the English troops were allowed 
to scalp all Indians, and Canadians fighting disguised 
as Indians, which was practically only an exemption 
of the regular troops. The foraging parties had 
been ordered to burn and lay waste the country. 



342 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

sparing nothing but churches, but molesting women 
and children " on no account whatsoever." 

On the 28th of July, when the French renewed 
their attempt to burn the English fleet by casting 
loose a huge fire-raft of light vessels bound togeth- 
er, Wolfe sent a flag of truce to the garrison with 
this message : ''If the enemy presume to send down 
any more fire-rafts, they are to be made fast to two 
particular transports, In which are all the Canadian 
and other prisoners. In order that they may perish 
by their own base Inventions." 

The defeat at MontmorencI tended to increase 
the existing Irritation. The whole of August was 
spent In mere raiding. It was estimated, by one 
who took part in the devastation, that fourteen hun- 
dred farm-houses were burned and their orchards 
ruined. An expedition against St. Paul's Bay en- 
countered some resistance, but succeeded in burning 
several pretty villages. The Louisbourg grenadiers, 
coming across a priest who had thrown himself into 
a house with a party of his parishioners, drew them 
out by a stratagem, and then killed and scalped 
thirty-one of them. 

The only serious bit of campaigning that relieved 
this petty marauding was the expedition of General, 
Murray up the river. He set out with twelve hun- 
dred men for the purpose of aiding Admiral Holmes 



I759-] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 343 

in an attempt to destroy the French ships above the 
town, and to open communication with Amherst ; 
but they escaped him by lightening and running into 
shallows, out of the way. 

Murray found the north shore carefully watched at 
all points, and was beaten off twice in attempting to 
land. The third time he got a foothold at Decham- 
bault, burned a magazine, captured a few prisoners, 
and discovered, by letters which fell into his hands, 
that Johnson had captured Niagara, and that Am- 
herst was in possession of Crown Point. He then 
returned without having accomplished anything of 
importance. 

During August, Wolfe, never in robust health, 
was stricken with a fever. As soon as he began to 
recover, he called together his brigadiers, and di- 
rected them to take into consideration the prob- 
lem of the siege. He gave it as his opinion that the 
town would surrender if the French army were de- 
feated ; that the army, and not the town, should be 
attacked ; and submitted three plans, all looking 
toward an attempt to carry the intrenched camp at 
some point between the St. Charles and the Mont- 
morenci. 

But General Townshend proposed an alternative 
which met the approval of his associates, was finally 
adopted by the commander-in-chief, and resulted in 



344 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

the capture of Quehec. In support of the idea of 
getting a position on the heights of Abraham, he 
said : " If we can maintain a new position on that 
side, we shall force Montcalm to fight where we 
choose ; we shall then be not only situated between 
him and his magazines, but also between his camp 
and the forces opposed to Amherst. If he offer us 
battle and he should lose the day, then Quebec, prob- 
ably all Canada, would fall into our hands, a result 
far greater than could occur from a victory at Beau- 
port ; and, again, if he cross the River St. Charles 
with forces enough to confront us in the position 
we have supposed, the Beauport camp, thereby 
weakened, might be all the more easily attacked." 

However, there was nothing sanguine in the tone 
of Wolfe's mind at this juncture. He had been 
two months before the city, the summer was rapid- 
ly passing away, and little was accomplished. The 
whole case is summed up frankly in his own letter 
to Pitt, in which he gave Townshend's plan, and 
said he had acquiesced in it ; but he detailed the 
difficulties in the way of carrying it out and reca- 
pitulated the elements that had hitherto retarded 
success — the vigilance of the Indian scouts prevent- 
ing surprise, the batteries on the heights command- 
ing the fleet in case of a direct assault on the town 
from the river, and the difficulty of receiving any 



1759'] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 345 

help from the fleet in the position it must necessarily 
take, if the Upper Town were chosen for the at- 
tack. " In this situation," said he, " there is such 
. a choice of difiiculties that I own myself at a loss 
how to determine." 

Curiously enough, we have what Is supposed to be 
a record of Montcalm's opinions at about the same 
time, in a letter sent to Paris. After describing the 
ill success of the besiegers, he says their only hope 
is in " effecting a descent on the bank where the 
city is situated, without fortifications and without 
defence. They would then be in a position to offer 
me battle, which I could not refuse, and which I 
should not gain. . . . My Canadians, without 
discipline, deaf to the voice of the drum and martial 
instruments, disordered by this movement, could 
not form their ranks again. Moreover, they are 
without bayonets to oppose to those of the enemy ; 
they could only fly, and there I should be, beaten 
without remedy." 

This remarkable military prophecy was followed by 
a still more remarkable political prophecy which is 
quoted elsewhere. It is to be regretted that the au- 
thenticity of so wonderful a document as this letter 
should be questioned ; but Carlyle, who quotes it in 
his " Frederick the Great," declares in a note to 
the last edition of the work that it is a forgery. His 



346 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

reasons are not given ; but the fact that the letter 
v/as first published in London in 1777 is suspicious, as 
its fabrication might then have had a political end in 
view. Moreover, it is hard to understand why Mont- 
calm should have written a long letter of this sort at 
a time when there was very little prospect of getting 
it to France. But something stronger than mere con- 
jecture is needed to overturn the authority of the doc- 
ument. On the 29th of August, five vessels ran past 
the town, and the next day four more. On the 1st 
of September the sick and wounded were brought 
to the Isle of Orleans ; on the 2d, a large body of 
the troops in position there withdrew ; on the 3d, 
the main body set all the houses and fortifications 
on fire, embarked in flat-bottomed boats, and 
moved to Point Levi ; and on the 4th, the troops 
on the Island of Orleans were shifted to the same 
place. The whole available force of the army was 
then on the south side of the river. 

On the 7th, 8th, and 9th, Admiral Holmes, com- 
manding the squadron above the city, stretching 
from Sillery to Point aux Trembles, manoeuvred to 
divert the attention of the French. Montcalm was 
on the alert, and sent Bougainville up the river 
with about three thousand men to watch the enemy's 
movements. The bank was regularly patrolled, 
and guards were stationed at the Anse des Meres, 



I759-] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 347 

Anse du Foulon, and the Cove of Samos, all of 
which the French general persisted in regarding 
as impracticable, probably because he was urged 
to take additional precautions by Vaudreuil. A 
month earlier, he had said in a letter to the Gov- 
ernor touching these points : " Vigilant patrolling is 
all that is needed in addition ; for we need not sup- 
pose that our enemies have wings to enable them in 
one night to cross the flood, debark, ascend broken- 
up, steep ways, and resort to escalade — an operation 
all the more unlikely to take place, as the assailants 
would have to bring ladders." 

On another occasion he wrote to Vaudreuil, who 
was concerned about the Anse des Meres : " I swear 
to you that one hundred men posted will stop an 
army, give us time to wait till daylight, and then 
come up from the right. At the slightest nocturnal 
alarm, I shall march to your relief with the regi- 
ments of Guyenne and Beam, which encamp in line 
to-morrow. Show light to-night in canoes ; and if 
darkness be great, light up fires." It seems singu- 
lar that he who had left nothing to chance below 
the city, should have trusted so much to chance 
above it. 

After a careful exminatlon of the northern bank, 
Wolfe and his officers had chosen for the contem- 
plated descent a spot about three miles above the 



348 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

city, called the Anse du Foulon, now known as 
Wolfe's Cove. There a narrow path ran up the bank, 
and was defended at the top by an escarpment. The 
position was guarded by about one hundred men ; 
but, unfortunately for the French, the place was in 
command of Vercors, who, three years before, had 
surrendered Beau Sejour, and was more notable 
for his skill in peculation than for his soldiership. 

Some of the English troops marched on the south 
bank to a point eight miles up the river, and there 
embarked, but were set ashore again. On Septem- 
ber nth, Wolfe issued an order warning the army 
to be in readiness to land and attack the enemy, and 
hinting at a night's service in the boats. On the 
1 2th, a deserter from Montcalm's camp reported the 
bulk of the French army below the town, and the 
general incredulous as to any serious design at any 
point above. On the evening of that day, Wolfe 
issued his last general order, declaring that the 
Canadians were disheartened, that Amherst was ad- 
vancing, and that a vigorous blow would determine 
the fate of Canada. Those first ashore were enjoined 
to form with expedition, march straight on the 
enemy, and charge whatever appeared. Much was 
to be expected from them in dealing with " five 
weak French battalions mingled with a disorderly 
peasantry." 



1759- J THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 349 

The same evening, the heavier vessels below the 
city stood in toward Beauport shore and lowered 
away their boats filled with seamen and marines, as 
if for an attack. The rest of them set all sail and 
moved rapidly up to join Holmes's squadron at Cap 
Rouge, eight miles above the city, to which point 
Murray and Monckton marched from Point Levi, 
and the whole army embarked. 

It was nine o'clock when the first division of 
sixteen hundred men, composed of the light infan- 
try commanded by Colonel Howe, the regiments of 
Bragg, Kennedy, Lascelles, and Anstruther, a de- 
tachment of the Highlanders, and the American 
Grenadiers, took their places in the flat-bottomed 
boats, and the flotilla dropped down the river with 
the tide, Holmes's squadron following with the rest 
of the troops at an interval of forty-five minutes. 
Wolfe, though scarcely recovered from his illness, 
was as usual in the lead ; and there is a tradition 
that, as he sat in the boat, floating along between 
the clear water and the starlit sky, the sense of the 
nothingness of that glory for which he had so 
thirsted came over him, and he repeated these lines 
from Gray's Elegy : 

" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Await alike the inexorable hour : 
The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 



350 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

" Now, gentlemen," he said, ** I would rather be 
the author of that poem than take Quebec." And 
doubtless the capture of the Canadian citadel was an 
easier task than the composition of that almost fault- 
less threnody. 

It was a circumstance in favor of the English ex- 
pedition, that the French were expecting a convoy 
of provisions from Bougainville, and, warned of the 
fact, the boats gave the proper answer when the 
French sentinels challenged along the shore. One 
of the English vessels, however, unaware of the at- 
tempt to land, and on the watch for the convoy, 
came near ruining the enterprise by firing on the 
flotilla. The rapidity of the ebbing tide carried 
part of the boats a little below the appointed landing. 

An hour before daylight, the light company of 
the 78th Highlanders, which was the first to land, 
began to scramble up the wooded precipice. The 
captain, Donald Macdonald, answered the challenge 
of the sentinel in French, and gained a few 
moments. But the noise of the advance startled 
the guard, which turned, fired an irregular volley 
down the precipice, and fled. According to an Eng- 
lish account, Vercors, the captain, alone stood his 
ground and resisted stoutly ; according to a French 
account, he was captured in his bed. 

With very little loss, the troops reached the heights 



I759-] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 351 

and formed on the Plains of Abraham, the table- 
land stretching away for nine miles above the city. 
As fast as a boat was emptied, it was despatched to 
the fleet, and reloaded with the men of Town- 
shend's division. The battalions formed on the nar- 
row beach, marched up the winding path, and re- 
formed on the open ground above. At dawn, the 
whole army was in line, but only one gun had been 
brought up the hill. 

Montcalm had been deceived by the movements 
of the boats below the town during the night, as 
they seemed to be threatening different points 
between Beauport and Montmorenci ; and, though 
he heard the sound of a cannon and the rattle of 
musketry from the westward after daylight, he had 
no notion of what had happened, until couriers gal- 
loped into the camp at six o'clock with the intelli- 
gence. 

" It can be but a small party come to burn a few 
houses and retire," he said. But when the news 
was confirmed, he exclaimed : *' Then they have at 
last reached the weak side of this miserable garri- 
son ! We must give them battle and crush them 
before mid-day." 

Gathering all his available force, he moved rapidly 
across the St. Charles by the bridge of boats, and 
past the ramparts of the town, Vaudreuil being left 



352 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

to guard the lines. As early as eight o'clock, the 
head of the column was in sight, and by nine Mont- 
calm was forming his line of battle. It has been 
said that he should not have fought at all : Bougain- 
ville was within an easy march ; the English army 
was weak, and could not attempt to attack a supe- 
rior, or even an equal force, resting on the works 
of the city ; the season was far advanced, and the 
raising of the siege merely a question of days. To 
deliver a hasty battle seemed mere madness. Mont- 
calm may have been fluttered by the appearance of 
the British in so dangerous a position, and so have 
made an unwise decision ; or it may be that he was 
convinced he had a fair chance of victory, and saw 
that victory won under such circumstances meant 
the complete destruction of his enemy. Perhaps he 
simply saw the end approaching which he had so 
long anticipated ; and, believing there was nothing 
effective to be done, determined to do something 
gallant. 

Wolfe's line of battle was formed with the right 
on the precipice, scarcely a mile from the ramparts 
of the town. The 35tli regiment was on the ex- 
treme right, the Louisbourg grenadiers joined them, 
and the 28th prolonged the line to the 43d, which 
constituted the centre. Toward the left, the 47th, 
the 78th Highlanders, and the 58th followed in sue- 



1759] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 353 

cession, the last regiment holding the brow of the 
ridge overlooking the valley of the St. Charles and 
completing the first line. In the second line, the 
15th regiment rested its right upon the river- bank ; 
the two battalions of the 60th, or Royal Americans, 
occupied the plain to the left, Colonel Burton with 
the 48th regiment was held in reserve, and Colonel 
Howe with the light infantry, grouped in some 
houses and neighboring coppices, protected the left 
flank. Wolfe with Monckton took his station on the 
right of the first line, Murray commanded on the 
left, and Townshend had charge of the second 
line. 

Montcalm's right was formed of the regiment of 
La Sarre and Languedoc, with a battalion of the 
Colonial troops ; the regiments of Bearne and 
Guyenne were in the centre, supported by a strong 
body of militia ; the Royal Roussillon and a battal- 
ion of the marine held the left. The commander 
took his place in the centre. 

The ordinary English historian is accustomed to 
give the strength of Wolfe's army at forty-eight 
hundred and twenty-eight men, and that of Mont- ^ 
calm's at seventy-five hundred and twenty, basing 
the latter figure on the authority of an *' intelligent 
Frenchman," casually mentioned in Knox's Journal,; 
but not named. The ordinary French historian 



354 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC, [i759- 

allows Wolfe eight thousand and Montcalm four 
thousand five hundred troops. But the best author- 
ities estimate the strength of each army at less 
than five thousand men, and as nearly numerically 
equal. The English troops, however, were a solid 
mass of tried veterans, confident in themselves and 
confident in their leader ; the French troops were 
an incongruous mixture, part of whom mistrusted 
themselves, and part of whom mistrusted their com- 
rades, while the commander mistrusted his army as 
a whole. Artillery played but little part in the bat- 
tle. To offset the single cannon that Wolfe had 
dragged up the precipice, Montcalm brought up only 
two guns. 

If it was inconsiderate folly on the part of the 
French general to risk a battle, it must be acknowl- 
edged that he fought it like a bold and skilful sol- 
dier. About ten o'clock, after an hour's cannonad- 
ing, the fighting opened on the right, where the 
French skirmishers, mainly Canadians and Indians, 
pushed up the slope from the valley of the St. 
Charles, turned the left flank of Murray's brigade, 
and attacked Howe's light infantry. The object of the 
movement, which was gallantly executed, seemed to 
be to roll back the English line and crowd it over 
the precipice. Townshend, who exhibited singular 
ability throughout this campaign, pushed forward 



I759-] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 355 

the 15th regiment and the Royal Americans to the 
help of Howe, and restored the fight. 

Meanwhile the French centre and left advanced 
rapidly, driving in Wolfe's skirmishers, whose retreat 
for a moment disordered the main line. But the 
disturbance passed away, and the British waited 
quietly for the approach of the enemy. The French 
line came on, firing quickly at a distance of a hun- 
dred yards. Wolfe, who was moving along his line 
exhorting the men to reserve their fire till they 
could deliver a volley at a distance of forty yards, 
was struck in the wrist with a bullet ; but he wrap- 
ped his handkerchief about his hand, and paid no 
further attention to the wound. When at last the 
English troops received the order to fire, they de- 
livered one of those close and deadly volleys for 
which they are celebrated, and under the crash of 
that battle-bolt the French column staggered. St. 
Ours was killed, Senezergues fell mo'rtally wounded, 
and many minor officers and men were stretched 
upon the field. The pressure of the fire was so 
fierce that the Canadian militia broke, notwithstand- 
ing the efforts of Montcalm to keep them steady ; 
and while the French left and centre hesitated and 
wavered, the right, checked by Townshend's dis- 
positions, began to recoil before a counter-attack of 
the 58th and 78th regiments. 



356 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

Wolfe, seeing that the crisis of the fight was at 
hand, ordered an advance along the whole line. 
The movement, which began as a slow but steady 
advance, with deadly volleys clearing the way, soon 
took the form of a triumphant charge, the French 
breaking away in all directions. At this juncture 
Wolfe was struck a second time, somewhat more 
seriously, and as he pressed on in the pursuit at the 
head of the Louisbourg grenadiers, he was struck in 
the breast by a shot from a redoubt. He staggered, 
but catching hold of Lieutenant Brown, of the 22d, 
murmured : " Support me, that my brave fellows 
may not see me fall." The lieutenant, a volunteer 
named Henderson, and a private soldier of the 22d, 
carried him a little way to the rear, with the help of 
Captain Williamson of the Royal Artillery. There 
he asked to be laid down. They wanted to know 
if he would have a surgeon, but he said ; " It is 
needless ; it is all over with me." 

One of the group about him cried out : " They 
run, see how they run !" 

Like a man roused from sleep, Wolfe, who had 
been sinking rapidly, asked : " Who runs?" 

"The enemy, sir," was the answer. ** Egad ! 
they give way everywhere." 

" Go one of you, my lads," said Wolfe, " to Col- 
onel Burton. Tell him to march Webb's regiment 



1 759-] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 357 

with all speed down to the St. Charles, to cut off 
the retreat of the fugitives from the bridge." 
Then, turning on his side, he died with the ex- 
clamation : ** Now, God be praised ! I will die in 
peace." 

About the same time that Wolfe was struck 
down, Carleton fell severely wounded, and Barre re- 
ceived a ball in the head, from the effect of which 
he afterward lost the sight of one eye. Monckton 
also fell, disabled but not dangerously hurt, as he 
was advancing between the 43d and 47th regiments, 
and the command devolved upon Townshend, who, 
after disposing of the last organized resistance in a 
coppice toward the left of the victorious forces, took 
measures to withdraw from the pursuit and re-form 
the troops to meet the expected advance of Bou- 
gainville from up the river. The 47th and 58th regi- 
ments had pushed the fugitives up to the very gates 
of St. Louis and St. John, while the 78th Highland- 
ers, drawing their broadswords, followed the strag- 
glers, slaughtering as they v/ent ; many of the 
Frenchmen joining to the cry for quarter the protest 
that they had not been at Fort William Henry. 
The remnants of the left and centre of Montcalm's 
army found refuge within the fortifications of the 
city, while all that was left of the right wing fell 
back in confusion beyond the St. Charles. 



358 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

Montcalm had been mortally wounded while 
making a gallant effort to rally his men. Death 
came to him more slowly than to Wolfe ; but he 
met it with a Christian resignation not less admir- 
able than the fiery heroism of the British com- 
mander. When he had been carried to the general 
hospital, a convent of the Augustine nuns on the 
St. Charles, about a mile from the town, and put to 
bed, with his wound dressed, he asked the surgeon 
if his hurt was mortal. When told that it was, he 
said: '* I am glad of it." He then inquired: 
** How long can I survive?" ** About a dozen 
hours; perhaps more, peradventure less," was the 
answer. ** So much the better," said Montcalm; 
" I shall not live to see the surrender of Que- 
bec." 

Shortly afterward Monsleuf de Ramsay, the 
King's Heutenant, in command of the fortifications 
of the city, called upon the general and asked his 
advice on various points touching the defence. The 
dying man made answer : ** I'll neither give orders 
nor interfere any further. I have business that 
must be attended to of much greater moment than ' 
your ruined garrison and this wretched country. My 
time is very short ; therefore, pray leave me. I 
wish you all comfort, and to be happily extricated 
from your present perplexities." He then called for 



1 759-] THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 359 

his chaplain and prepared for death, which came to 
his relief on the evening of September 14th. 

The battle was scarcely over when Bougainville 
appeared upon the field ; but the resolute front and 
superior numbers of Townshend dismayed him, and 
he fell back unpursued to Cap Rouge. There he 
was joined the same evening by Vaudreuil, who 
had abandoned the intrenched camp below the St. 
Charles with the remnants of the French army. 
Word was sent to M. de Levis, then at Montreal, to 
come and assume command in Montcalm's place, 
and it is not improbable that an energetic leader 
such as he was might have done something to re- 
trieve the evil effects of the first battle of the Plains 
of Abraham ; but by the time he was ready to move, 
Quebec had surrendered. 

On the day succeeding the action, Townshend 
began the construction of works against the city and 
cut it off from communication with the surrounding 
country ; and on the 17th the fleet moved up for 
an attack on the Lower Town. Prvoisions were 
scarce, the inhabitants of the city were disheart- 
ened, and the prospects of a protracted defence were 
gloomy. Consequently, M. de Ramsay completed 
negotiations for the surrender of the place at once. 
The capitulation was proclaimed on the morning of 
the 1 8th, and in the afternoon the representatives of 



360 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [i759- 

the army took possession of the Upper Town, the 
representatives of the navy assuming the honor of 
occupying the Lower Town. The terms granted 
were honorable, as Townshend and Admiral Saun- 
ders were only too glad to secure their easy conquest 
by liberal concessions. The garrison marched out 
v/ith the honors of war, the people were secured in 
all their rights and privileges, and the Catholic 
church was guaranteed the enjoyment of free- 
dom and the possession of its property. On the 
part of the French commander, the surrender must, 
on the whole, be regarded as somewhat pusillani- 
mous, since a messenger from De Levis arrived on 
the 1 8th with a promise of help, which that officer 
would certainly have tried desperately to make 
good. 

So ended the memorable sies^e of Quebec. The 
battle which decided the result was a mere skirmish, 
if we consider only the numbers engaged and the 
losses ; for the English acknowledge a loss on their 
own part of but fifty-five killed and six hundred and 
seven wounded of all ranks, and only claim a loss on 
the part of the French of fifteen hundred killed, 
wounded, or missing. But the romantic circum- 
stances attending the action — the night movement 
on the great river, the ascent of a precipice to find 
a field of battle, the fall of the two commanders, 



1 759- J T^^E CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 361 

one so heroic in his victory, and the other so manly 
in his defeat, the decisive results of the brief strug- 
gle — all these things make the story of the capture 
of Quebec a favorite with the historian and the 
artist. 

To be sure, the decisive character of the engage- 
ment on the Plains of Abraham was mainly due to 
the fact that it was England that v/on the victory ; 
for the result gave her one of those strong natural 
positions on a great commercial channel which her 
mastery at sea has enabled her to hold in different 
parts of the world. Though the war was still to linger 
on, the event was no longer doubtful, as the posses- 
sion of Quebec afforded the means of bringing the 
naval power of Great Britain to bear effectively ; 
and the support of that power rendered Quebec in- 
vulnerable. The French might win another battle 
on the spot where Wolfe had defeated them, but it 
was destined to be a barren victory. 

The news of the fall of the capital of Canada 
reached England two days after the news of the 
defeat at Montmorenci, and caused the wildest re- 
joicings — save in one small Kentish village, where 
sympathy with the widowed mother of the dead vic- 
tor restrained the expression of public gratification. 
The remains of Wolfe were taken to England for 
interment, and his memory was honored by his 



362 THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. [1759. 

countrymen with lavish gratitude. Montcalm was 
buried in a church in Quebec, in a tomb scooped 
out by a hostile shell. To-day a monument erected 
to the honor of both heroes looks down on the 
scene of their struggle -a memorial of one of those 
few conquests in the history of the world in which 
the vanquished have preserved possessions, lan- 
guage, religion, and the fair fame of the men who 
died for the lost cause. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. 

Siege of Quebec by De Levis — Battle at Sillery Wood — Amherst on 
the St. Lawrence — Surrender of Isle Royale — Surrender of Mont- 
real and the Whole of Canada — The Treaty of Paris — Pre- 
dictions of the Revolt of the Colonies. 

Notwithstanding the successes of 1759, Can- 
ada was not yet completely conquered. If Am- 
herst had moved on faster and taken Montreal, 
the work would have been finished ; but his failure 
to do so gave the French forces an opportunity to 
rally, and the indefatigable De Levis, who had suc- 
ceeded Montcalm, gathered what remained of the 
army at Montreal, and made preparations for at- 
tempting the recovery of Quebec. The people of 
Canada were still more pressed with want than the 
year before ; wheat sold at from thirty to forty 
livres a bushel (six or eight dollars), a cow was worth 
nine hundred livres, and a sheep from two to three 
hundred. 

After several fruitless attacks had been made on 
the British outposts during the winter, De Levis 
refitted all the vessels yet remaining early in the 



3C4 THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. [1760. 

spring and gathered the stores still left at the forts 
on the Richelieu. On the 17th of April, he left 
Montreal with all his force, and descended the river, 
gathering up the detached troops on the way ; 
the whole amounting to more than ten thousand 
men. 

Quebec had been left in charge of Murray, with 
seven thousand men, a supply of heavy artillery, and 
stores of ammunition and provisions ; but the num- 
ber of men had been much reduced by sickness and 
by hardship encountered in bringing fuel to the 
city from forests, some as far as ten miles away. 
Their position, however, had been very much 
strengthened ; Murray had erected redoubts, with 
artillery, outside the fortifications, and repaired five 
hundred of the injured houses for the accommoda- 
tion of his troops. 

De Levis encamped at St. Foy, and on the 27th 
advanced to within three miles of the city. Murray 
took the unaccountable resolution of sallying out 
with his reduced and dispirited army to meet the 
enemy in the open field — a measure which he after- 
ward attempted to explain in a letter to the 
Secretary of State : ** Well weighing my peculiar 
position, and well knowing that in shutting myself 
up within the walls of the city, I should risk the 
whole stake in the chance of defending a wretched 



1760.] THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. 365 

fortification, which could not be lessened by an 
action in the field." 

On the morning of the 28th of April, Murray 
marched his wasted army out to the Plains of 
Abraham, with twenty pieces of artillery, and formed 
his line of battle. Riding out to observe the po- 
sition of the enemy, he found that they were un- 
prepared for action, and returning he gave orders 
for an immediate attack, and the army marched 
down the slope from the heights and into the plains 
near Sillery Wood. 

Two companies of the French grenadiers advanced 
and met the vanguard of the British, and then drew 
back ; whereupon some of Murray's men pursued 
them, but were thus exposed to the fire of their own 
cannon, which obliged the gunners to cease firing, 
and they were repelled in turn by the French, who 
were now in battle array. The engagement imme- 
diately became general. The British left soon 
gave way, and drew back in confusion ; the right fol- 
lowed ; the artillery was lost ; and at length only two 
regiments held the forlorn hope, and Murray's men 
were forced to fly, leaving three hundred dead upon 
the field. The wounded amounted to about seven 
hundred, many of whom were left in the hands of 
the enemy. It is charged that only twenty-eight of 
these were sent to the hospitals, and the rest given 



o 



66 THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. [1760. 



Up to the Indians ; but the French accounts say 
that the Indians, who had taken no part in the ac- 
tion, but had been skulking in the rear, came to the 
field during the pursuit and killed many of the 
wounded, while those that survived were protected 
from the Indians, whom De Levis quickly dispersed, 
and received the same treatment as the wounded 
French. The loss of De Levis has been variously 
given at from four hundred to eighteen hundred. 

The French made immediate preparations for a 
siege by opening trenches. The English garrison 
was so reduced that not more than twenty-two hun- 
dred were fit for service ; but they all went to work 
with alacrity, hoping to hold out until relief should 
come. Five hundred men who could not walk with- 
out crutches, made sand-bags and cartridges ; and 
the women who were not employed in the care of 
the wounded assisted in the light work of the gar- 
rison. One hundred and thirty- two cannon were 
mounted, and opened fire on the French lines. 

On the 9th of May, a ship was seen turning the 
bend below and advancing toward the city. Both 
armies were expecting relief, and their strength was 
so nearly balanced that the turning of the scale 
depended on the approaching ship. ** Such was the 
garrison's anxiety," wrote one of them, "that we 
remained some time in suspense, not having eyes 



1760.] THE SURRENDER OF CANADA, 367 

enough to look at it ; but we were soon con- 
vinced that she was British, although there were 
some among us who, having their motives for ap- 
pearing wise, sought to temper our joy by obsti- 
nately insisting that she was French. But the ves- 
sel having saluted the fort with twenty-one guns, 
and launched her small boat, all doubts vanished. It 
is impossible to describe the gayety that seized upon 
the garrison. Officers and men mounted the ram- 
parts, mocked at the French, and for an hour raised 
continual hurras, and threw their caps into the air. 
The city, the enemy's camp, the harbor,, and the 
country around for miles in extent, reechoed our 
cries and the roar of our batteries." 

Other vessels arrived on the 15th, and on the fol- 
lowing day they attacked and quickly destroyed the 
little French fleet under Vaquelin. De Levis, hav- 
ing nothing more to hope for, raised the siege in 
haste, abandoned his stores, and retreated to Mont- 
real. A detachment of English troops pursued, 
and brought back a few prisoners. 

All this time, Amherst was ponderously prepar- 
ing to go to the aid of Quebec, and early in May 
he was ready to move from New York. Captain 
Loring was sent to drive the French cruisers from 
Lake Ontario, to prevent the French forces from 
retiring to the west, and making another stand. 



368 THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. [1760. 

Amherst had chosen to reach Montreal by the 
roundabout way of Oswego and the St. Lawrence. 
Colonel Haviland was to take the direct route by 
way of Lake Champlain, with about thirty-five hun- 
dred men ; and Murray, aided by Lord RoUo and 
two battalions from Louisbourg, had been directed 
to ascend the river, and meet Amherst and Havi- 
land before the doomed city. 

It was the 9th of July when Amherst reached 
Oswego with part of his army ; Gage brought the 
rest on the 22d, and Johnson and his Lidians joined 
the encampment the following day. There were 
over ten thousand soldiers and seven hundred 
Indians. 

On the 7th of August, Amherst sent a detachment 
under Haldimand to take possession of the post at 
the head of the river, where Kingston now stands ; 
and by the 12th the last of the army were embarked, 
and an armed vessel was captured on the river by a 
detachment of men in barges, under Colonel 
Williamson. 

On Isle Royale was a small work called Fort Levi, 
under the command of Pouchot, which the English 
expected to pass " like a beaver's hut." But learn- 
ing that there were some skilful pilots there, Am- 
herst determined to capture it. Batteries were 
therefore placed, and on the 23d the vessels opened 



1760.] HE SURRENDER OF CANADA. 369 

a vigorous fire, and were soon joined by the bat- 
teries. Pouchot waited till the ships were within 
pistol-shot, and then returned the fire with such 
spirit that two of them were forced to run aground, 
and one to strike her colors. 

Many of the English ships bore Indian names — 
the Ottawa, Oneida, Onojidaga, etc. — and the Cath- 
olic Indians of Father Picquet's mission, who were 
watching the contest from the fort, regarding the 
ships as on their side on account of the names, 
and because they carried Indians painted on their 
flags, became very much excited at seeing them 
faring badly, and especially when the Ottawa and 
the Oneida drifted off and ran aground. 

On the 25th, Pouchot, being nearly at the end of 
his resources, surrendered to Amherst, with his 
garrison of nearly three hundred men. Selecting 
some guides for his ships down the dangerous course 
of the river, Amherst despatched the remainder of 
the garrison to New York by way of Oswego. The 
Indians had secretly planned to destroy the garrison 
when the fort should be given up ; but Amherst, 
hearing of the plan, told Sir William Johnson to 
dissuade them from it, promising them all the stores 
in the fort, and threatening that his own soldiers 
would turn upon them if they attempted a massacre. 
The Indians submitted, but were sulky and dissatis- 



370 THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. [1760. 

fied, and Johnson told Amherst they v/ould prob- 
ably leave the army — as, indeed, most of them did. 
Amherst threatened them with vengeance on his re- 
turn if they should commit any acts of violence on 
their way to their homes ; and they were forced to 
content themselves with a peaceable journey. 

On the way through the rapids, sixty-four boats, 
eighty-eight men, and a quantity of stores were 
lost. Amherst invested Montreal on the 6th of 
September, and was met by Murray, whose progress 
up the river had been a continual skirmish. Nearly 
every village assailed him with a fire of musketry ; 
and he had taken vengeance on some by burning 
them. Haviland, coming up from Crown Point, had 
forced Bougainville to draw off most of his men 
from Isle aux Noix, and received the surrender of 
the remainder, and reached Montreal a day later 
than Amherst. 

Vaudreuil had resolved not to make any useless 
resistance, but to give up the city as soon as the 
English army should arrive ; and on the 8th of 
September, not only Montreal, but all Canada— from 
the fishing stations on the Gulf of St. Lawrence to 
the crest dividing the rivers that flow into lakes 
Erie and Michigan from those that find their way 
to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico — was sur- 
rendered to England. 



1763.] THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. 371 

The provincial troops were to return to their 
homes, and the regulars to march out from their 
posts with all the honors of war, and be sent to 
France in British vessels, under pledges not to serve 
again before the conclusion of peace. The civil offi- 
cers were also to be conveyed to France with their 
families and baggage ; and only such papers were 
to be retained as would be useful for the future reg- 
ulation of the affairs of the colony. Religious lib- 
erty was granted, private property was to be re- 
spected, and the French colonists were to enjoy the 
same civil and commercial rights as the British. 

An armament had been ordered from France to 
the aid of the French troops in Canada, consisting 
of a thirty-gun frigate, two large supply-ships, and 
nineteen smaller vessels ; but, learning that British 
ships were in the St. Lawrence, the officers thought 
best to put into the Bay of Chaleurs, whither Cap- 
tain Byron, in command at Louisbourg, sailed with 
five vessels and destroyed the entire fleet, together 
with two batteries and two hundred houses. 

After long negotiations, the preliminaries of 
peace were signed on the 3d of November, 1762, 
and ratified February loth, 1763. By this, called 
the Treaty of Paris, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Cape 
Breton were ceded to Great Britain. France re- 
served New Orleans and the territory west of the 



372 THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. [1763. 

Mississippi, but immediately afterward ceded them 
to Spain. They did not, however, remain long in 
Spanish possession, but were returned to France, 
and finally conveyed to the United States in 1803. 

Thus Great Britain gained possession of nearly 
all the inhabited portion of North America. The 
struggle to found a French empire in the west was 
over, and New France disappeared from the map, 
while the boundary of British America was moved 
northward to the Polar Sea. It looked as if the 
lines of British territory were definitely settled. 
But already there were predictions that the power 
of England on the western continent was soon to 
be assailed by her own children in the colonies that 
she herself had planted ; that the spirit of inde- 
pendence which had been growing up among them 
would break into open rebellion against the arbi- 
trary exactions of the old country and the repres- 
sions imposed on the growth of trade and manu- 
factures, so soon as the fear of French as^e^ression 
from the north and Indian hostilities on the frontier 
should be removed. 

Writing after the fall of Canada, a French diplo- 
matist said : *' The colonies will no longer need the 
protection of England. She will call on them to 
contribute toward supporting the burdens they have 
helped to bring on her, and they will answer by 



1763.] THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. 373 

striking off all dependence." And in the letter 
before alluded to, said to have been written by 
Montcalm in 1759, when he knew that the surrender 
of Quebec was only a question of time, he said : 
" If they must have masters, they prefer their 
countrymen to strangers, taking care, however, to 
yield as little obedience as possible ; but, Canada 
once conquered, and the Canadians one people with 
those colonists, let the first occasion come when 
England seems to interfere with their interests, and 
do you believe, my dear cousin, that the colonies 
will obey ? And what would they have to fear in 
revolting?" 

Some English statesmen also saw^the danger, and 
wished to take it into consideration in arranging the 
terms of the peace. " If the people of our colonies 
find no check from Canada," said one of them, 
** they will extend themselves almost without 
bound into the inland parts. They will increase in- 
finitely, from all causes. What the consequence 
will be, to have a numerous, hardy, independent 
people, possessed of a strong country, communicat- 
ing little or not at all with England, I leave to your 
own reflections. By eagerly grasping at extensive 
territory, we may run the risk, and in no very dis- 
tant period, of losing what we now possess. A 
neighbor that keeps us in some awe is not always 



374 THE SURRENDER OF CANADA. [1763. 

the worst of neighbors. So that, far from sacrific- 
ing Guadaloupe to Canada, perhaps if we might 
' have Canada without any sacrifice at all, we ought 
not to desire it. There should be a balance of 
power in America." 



INDEX. 



Abenaquis, the, attacks by, 82, 
106, 144, 146 ; treaties with the 
Enghsh, no, 131 ; led by ViUieu, 
III, 118; negotiations with the 
Enghsh, 115, 149; dictionary of 
their language, 146. 

Abercrombie, Gen. James, 237 ; 
ordered to Oswego, 239 ; chief in 
command, 273 ; besieges Ticon- 
deroga, 284 ; retreats, 287 ; or- 
ders the destruction of Fronte- 
nac, 294 ; recalled, 302. 

Acadia, settlement of, 22 ; Argall's 
expedition against, 31 ; disputes 
concerning, 48 ; Kirk's expedi- 
tion against, 49 ; grants in, 66 ; 
taken by the English, 78 ; re- 
stored to France, 79 ; taken by 
the English, 91 ; after the con- 
quest, 105 ; expeditions against, 
120, 133, 135, 137, 138 ; ceded to 
England, 143 ; boundaries of, 143, 
171, destruction of settlements 
in, 27S. 

Acadians, the, disloyal to England, 
137) i73t 17S ; voluntary remov- 
als of, 143. 176; exile of, 182. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, 170. 

Alabama, first settlement in, 64. 

Albemarle, Duke of, 89, 90. 

Alexander VI., Pope, bull of, 6. 

Alexander, Sir W., grant to, 48. 

Algonquins, the, 36 ; their alliance 
with the French, 37, 140 ; battles 
with the Iroquois, 39, 40. 

Allouez, his explorations, 62. 

AUumettes, Isle des, 42. 

Amherst, Gen. Jeffrey, 273 ; be- 
sieges Louisbourg, 274 ; at Lake 
George, 294 ; chief in command, 
302 ; at Lake Champlain, 310 ; 
fails to assist Wolfe, 314, 363 ; 
moves, 367 ; takes Isle Royale, 
369 ; Montreal, 370. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, 79. 

Annapolis. See Port Royal. 

Anne, Queen, 13T, 138, 150. 

Anse des Meres, 346. 



Anse du Foulon, 321, 347, 348. 

Anson, Admiral, 168. 

Anville, Due d', 166 

Aouschik, 252. 

Argall destroys settlements, 29, 31. 

Armstrong, Col. John, 250. 

Aubry, at Fort Du Quesne, 296 ; at 

Niagara, 305. 
Austrian Succession, War of, 152. 
Ayer, Samuel, 135. 

Barre, Isaac, 274, 323 ; wounded, 

357- 

Battle Brook, 149. 

Beaubassin, 176. 

Beaujeu, 217 ; his death, 218. 

Beaumont Church, 328. 

Beauport, 321, 349. 

Beau Sejour, Fort, 177, 179; taken, 
i8r. 

Bedford, Pa., 295. 

Belleisle, 154. 

Belletre, destroys German Flats, 
268. 

Bellomont, Earl of, 128. 

Bernes River, 281. 

Biard, Father, 24 ; at Port Royal, 
26, 27, 31 ; at Mount Desert, 29; 
carried away, 33. 

Bickford, Thomas, in. 

Biencourt, 25, 31, 33, 48. 

Bienville, Celoron de, 193. 

Bigot, Father, no. 

Biloxi, Bay of, colony at, 64. 

Bloody Pond, engagement at, 231. 

Boishebert, 172, 322. 

Bolingbroke, Viscount, 139. 

Boscawen, Admiral, 211, 235, 273. 

Boston, 68, 70 ; proposed expedi- 
tions against, 122, 165. 

Bougainville, 346, 350, 352, 357, 
359. 

Boundaries, indefiniteness of, 143 ; 
negotiations regarding, 210. 

Bouquet, Col. Henry, 255, 295 ; at- 
tempts to take Du Quesne, 296 ; 
takes western forts, 308. 

Bourbon, Fort, 125, 



INDEX. 



R(Airlamaque, 286, 311. 

Braddock, Gen. Edward, 210; his 
plans, 211 ; movements, 215 ; de- 
feat, 218 ; death, 220 ; Indian 
opinion of, 221. 

Braddock's Ford, 220. 

Bradstreet, Col., attacked, 239, at 
Ticonderoga, 279 ; arrests the 
flight, 288 ; at Frontenac, 292. 

Brebeuf Father, martyrdom of, 62. 

Breda, treaty of, 79. 

Brunswick, Me., 146. 

Bull, Fort, taken by the French, 240. 

BuUitt, Capt., 298. 

Burnet, Gov., builds a fort at Os- 
wego, 149. 

Bute, Earl of, his letter to Pitt, 289. 

Buteux, Father, death of, 61, 

Byron, Capt,, 371. 

Cabot, John and Sebastian, 5. 

" Cadets," 303. 

Caens, William and Emeric, 47. 

Callieres, plan of, 81 ; at La Prai- 
rie, 113, succeeds Frontenac, 129. 

Canada, origin of the name, 10 ; 
settlement of, 35 ; plans for con- 
quest of, 138, 164 ; state of in 
1759) 302 ; surrendered to Eng- 
land, 370. 

Canso, 144, 153. 

Cape Breton, 143, 144, 271, 277. 

Carillon Fort. See Ticonderoga. 

Carleton, Col. Guy, 323, 334; 
wounded, 357. 

Cartier, Jacques, 8, 16. 

Casco, attacks on, 86, ic8, 132. 

Casson, Dollier de, 63. 

Cataracouay, Fort, See Frontenac, 

Cayugas, the. See Iroquois. 

Chabanel, Noel, death of, 6r. 

Champlain, Lake, discovery of, 38 ; 
skirmish on, 253. 

Champlain, Samuel, in the West 
Indies, 20 ; books by, 20 ; in Can- 
ada, 21 ; founds Quebec, 36 ; goes 
against the Iroquois, 37, 40, 46 ; 
surrenders Quebec, 50 ; death, 53. 

Charles I, of England, 49. 

Charles VI. of Germany, 150. 

Charnisay, d'Aulnay, 67 ; his feud 
with La Tour, 67 ; message to 
Boston, 72 ; besieges La Tour's 
fort, 74 ; makes a treaty, 75 ; his 
death, 76. 



Charnisay, Madame, 77. 
Chebucto, 174. 
Cherokees, the, 222, 
Chignecto, 120, 134, 172. 
Chippewas, the, 140, 
Chubb, Capt., Pascho, his treach- 
ery, X16; surrenders Pemaquid, 

118 ; killed, 119. 
Church, Capt., Benj., at Pemaquid, 

107 ; in Acadia, 119, 133. 
Cocheco. See Dover, 
Colonies, the English predictions of 

the independence of, 169, 372 ; 

proposed union of, 207. 
Concord, N. H. See Rumford. 
ContreccEur, fort taken by, 205 ; 

commands at Du Quesne, 217. 
Converse, Capt., 107. 
Cook, Capt. James, 277. 
Corlaer. See Schenectady. 
Cormoran Creek, 275, 
Cornwallis, Gov,, 174, 178. 
Cortereal, Caspar, 6. 
Courcelles, Gov, of Canada, 57. 
Croghan, George, 213, 
Crooked Run, 216. 
Crown Point, fort built at, 149 ; 

Dieskau at, 226 ; Amherst marches 

against, 302,^ 310 ; abandoned by 

the French, -313, 
Cumberland, Fort, N, S., 182. 
Cumberland, Fort, Md,, 206, 247, 

249. 

Dablou, Father, 62, 

Dale, Sir Thomas, 30, 

Daniel, Father, martyrdom of, 61. 

Dauk, Capt., 330. 

Dauve.-siere, 57. 

Davis, Capt., Sylvanus, 86. 

Deerfield, destroyed, 132. 

Delawares, the, 195, 207, 221. 

De Lerg, 240, 

De Levis at Fort William Henry, 
261 ; during the massacre, 267 ; 
at Ticonderoga, 284, 286 ; at 
Ogdensburg, 310 ; at Montreal, 
33^ > 359) 360; succeeds Mont- 
calm, 363 ; besieges Quebec, 364. 

De Monts, 21. 

Denys, Nicholas, 66, 76. 

Dettingen, battle of, 153, 

Dieskau, Baron, 211, 226; his ad- 
vance, 228 ; forms an ambuscade, 
230 ; defeat, 232 ; death, 234. 



INDEX. 



377 



Dinwiddie, Gov., coi ; plans a line 
of forts, 248, 

Dollard, Adam, 56. 

Donnacona, 12, 15, 16. 

Doucett's Island, 22. 

Dover, attacked by Indians, 82. 

Drucour at Louisbourg, 276. 

Du Buisson, 142. 

Dumas, 217, 331. 

Dummer, Rev. S., 107. 

Dunbar, 216, 220. 

Dundonald, Earl, 276. 

Du Quesne, Fort, taken by the 
French, 203 ; Braddock's plan for 
taking, 212 ; Forbes sent against, 
273, 294 ; destroyed, 299 ; re- 
named, 300. 

Du Quesne, INIarquis, 200. 

Durell, Admiral, 324. 

Durham, attack on, iii. 

Dustin, Hannah, story of, 121. 

Du Thet, 28, 29. 

Du Vivier, 153, 155. 

Edward, Fort, 190, 227. 
Estournelle, Admiral, 166. 

FiNiSTERRE, Cape, battle off, 168. 

Five Nations, the. See Iroquois. 

Forbes, Gen. Joseph, 273 ; at Fort 
Du Quesne, 294. 

Forts, line of French, 189. 

Foxes, the, 139 ; defeat of, 142. 

FrankUn, Benj., his plan of union, 
207 ; his suggestion to Braddock, 
212 ; his story of Loudoun, 238. 

Frederick, Fort. "See Crown Point. 

Frederick the Great, 151. 

Frontenac, Count, 80 ; plans of, 83 ; 
at Montreal, 95 ; plan to take 
Pemaquid, 108 ; his dispute with 
Bellomont, 128 ; his death, 129. 

Frontenac, Fort, 80 ; rebuilt, 126 ; 
Bradstreet takes, 292. 

Fry, Col. Joshua, 203. 

Gage, Gen. Thomas, 214 ; ordered 
to Ogdensburg, 310 ; at Oswego, 
36S. 

Galissonifere, Marquis De, 193. 

Garneau, Father, death of, 59. 

Garnier, Father, death of, 61. 

Gaspereaux, Fort, 177. 

Gates, Horatio, 214. 

Gemseg, Fort, 93, 106. 



George, Lake, named by Joques, 
60 ; by Johnson, 227 ; battle of, 
230. 

George II., 150. 

German Flats, descent upon, 268. 

Gist, Christopher, 197, 201. 

Glen, J. Alexander, 84, 85. 

Goupil, murder of, 60. 

Grand Pr6, 168, 184. 

Grant, Maj., 296; defeated, 297. 

Great Meadows, 204 ; engagement 
at, 205. 

Groton, attack on, 112. 

Guercheville, Marchioness de, her 
interest in Port Royal, 25 ; grant 
to in America, 26 ; her colony at 
Mt. Desert, 29 ; attempt to recover 
damages, 34. 

Haldimand, Colonel, 304, 308, 368. 

Half- Way Brook, fight at, 290. 

Halifax, settlement of, 174; Lou- 
doun and Holbourne at, 256. 

Hardy, Sir Chas., 278. 

Harmon, Capt., 147. 

Hathorn, Col., 120. 

Haverhill, massacres at, 121, 135. 

Haviland, Col., 313, 368, 370. 

Hawkins, Capt., 70, 71. 

Hendrick, 227, 229 ; his death, 230. 

Hennepin, Father, 62. 

Heniy IV. of France, 18. 

Hertel, leads Indians, 133. 

Highlanders, at Ticonderoga, 285, 
286, 288 ; under Grant, 297, 299. 

Hochelaga, 12. 

Holbourne, Admiral, 256. 

Holmes, Admiral, 342, 346. 

How, Capt. Edward, 177. 

Howe, Lord George, 256, 273 ; 
under Abercrombie, 279 ; killed, 
281 ; character of, 281. 

Hudson Bay, English posts at. Si ; 
taken by the French, 125 ; restor- 
ed, 143. 

Hudson, Hendrick, 41. 

Huguenots, the. See Protestants. 

Hurons, the, 36, 39, 46, 55 ; missions 
to, 59 ; alliances witli, 140. 

Iberville, settlements planted by, 
64 ; at Hudson Bay, 82, 125 ; at 
Schenectady, 83; at Pemaquid, 
109, 117 ; in Newfoundland, 124. 

Indians, as alhes, 3 ; leagued with 



378 



INDEX. 



the French, 140 ; slaughter of 
prisoners by, 244, 267, 341. See 
Abenaquis, Iroquois, etc. 
Innis, his remark about Loudoun, 

239- 

Iroquois, the, alliance of, 3 ; enemies 
of, 36 ; battles of with Algon- 
quins, 39, 40, 46 ; fort of, 45 ; ex- 
peditions of against the French, 
46, 54, 55, 80, 112 ; French ex- 
peditions against, 57, 114, 126; 
some sent to France, 81 ; with the 
English, 113; some taken to 
England, 138 ; relations of with 
Delawares, 195 ; dispute concern- 
ing, 128 ; recognized as English 
subjects, 143 ; allied with the Eng- 
lish, 206, 212 ; incline to the 
French, 251, 258, 269. 

Isle aux Noix, surrendered, 370. 

Isle Royale, capture of, 368. 

Italians, explorations by, 2. 

Jacobs, Captain, 250. 

James II. of England, 88, 130. 

Jesuits, the, at Port Royal, 24, 26 ; 
at Quebec, 47 ; martyrdoms, 59 ; 
explorations, 62 ; in Acadia, no. 

Jogues, Father, martyrdom of, 59. 

Johnson, Sir William, 191, 212, 
227 ; defeats Dieskau, 232 ; builds 
a fort, 234 ; at Fort Edward, 264 ; 
at Niagara, 304 ; joins Amherst, 
368. 

Joliet, Louis, 62. 

Jonquiere, 167, 168. 

Jumonville, fight of with Washing- 
ton, 204. 

Kaskaskia, 65. 
Kennedy, Capt., 315. 
King George's War, 150. 
King William's War, 80. 
Kirk, Sir David, 49. 
Kirk, Louis, 50. 
Kittanning, destruction of, 249. 
Kittery, attack on, 112. 

La Chine, origin of the name, 36. 
La Corne, 172, 262; attacks Os- 
wego, 308. 
La Fleche, Father, 25, 27. 
Lalande, Father, martyrdom of, 61. 
Lalemant, Father, death of, 62. 



La Loutre, Abbe, 154, 156, 176, 
177, 181. 

Lancaster, attacked, 133, 

La Prairie, fight at, 113. 

La Presentation, mission of, 190. 

La Salle, 63, 64. 

La Tour, Charles, 33, 48, 49, 51, 
66 ; his feud with Charnisay, 67 ; 
besieged, 74 ; his marriage, 77 ; 
grant to, 78. 

La Tour, Claude, 48, 49, 51. 

La Tour, Madame, 67, 71, 74. 

Lawrence, Fort, 177. 

Lawrence, Gen,, 176, 273, 274. 

Le Bceuf, Fort, 201, 308. 

Le Borgne, 68, 77. 

Le Caron, Father, 44. 

Leisler, Gov,, 84. 

Leonardson, Samuel, 122, 

Lescarbot, Mark, 23. 

Lewis, Major, 295, 297. 

Lignery, 217, 305. 

Ligonier, 295. 

Logstown, conferences at, 198, 201. 

Long Sault, fight at the, 56. 

Loring, Capt., 314, 367. 

Loudoun, Earl, commander-in- 
chief, 237 ; characteristics of, 
238 ; quarters soldiers, 245, 269 ; 
inaction, 252 ; plans, 255, 269 ; at 
Halifax, 256 ; recalled, 271. 

Loudoun, Fort, 255. 

Louis XIV., 130. 

Louisbourg, built, 144 ; besieged, 
156, 159 ; surrendered, 162 ; re- 
stored, 170 ; Loudoun's attempt 
at, 255 ; besieged by Amherst 
and Boscawen, 274 ; surrendered, 
277. 

Lovewell, Capt. John, 148. 

Loyal, Fort, 86. 

Loyal Hanna, 295. 

Lyman, Gen. Phinehas, 227 ; com- 
mands at Lake George, 232. 

Macginnis, Capt,, 233. 

Machias, 66. 

Macpherson, Allan, 300. 

Madockawando, 108, no. 

Maisonneuve, 58. 

Mamberton, 23 ; his baptism, 25 ; 

his death, 27, 
Mance, Jeanne, miraculous call of, 

58. 
Mantet, 83. 



INDEX. 



379 



March, Col., 135. 

Maria Theresa, 150. 

Marin, 256, 291. 

Marlborough, Duke of, 131. 

Marquette, Father, 62. 

Martinique, attack on, 109. 

Mascarene, Paul, 153, 167. 

Masse, Father, 27, 30. 

Meneval, 91. 

Mercer, Col., 226, 242; killed, 243. 

Mercer, Hugh, 214, 250, 251, 

Mercier, 322. 

Merry Meeting Bay, attacked, 146. 

Mesnard, Father, 59. 

Messagouche, the, 176, 177. 

Miami, Fort, 63. 

Miamis, the, 198, 201 ; defeated- by 
the French, 199. 

Micmacs, the, 29, 117, 175. 

Minas, 134, 167, 175, 184. 

Mississippi, first settlement in, 64. 

Mississippi Valley, the, 143, 171. 

Mohawks, the. See Iroquois. 

Monckton, Gen., 180, 323, 328. 

Monroe, Col., 262. 

Montcalm, Gen., 241 ; invests Os- 
wego, 241 ; Indian massacres un- 
der, 244, 266 ; plan to take Fort 
William Henry, 258 ; besieges 
it, 262 ; predicts the fall of Cana- 
da, 272 ; at Ticonderoga, 280 ; 
at Quebec, 322 ; his death, 359 ; 
burial, 362 ; letters of, 345, 373. 

Montgomery, Richard, 274, 323. 

Montmorencl, the, 320 ; battle of, 

334- 
Montreal, site of, 14 ; founded, 57 ; 

attacked by Iroquois, 80 ; by the 

English, 139, 302 ; siege of, 370. 
Morgan, Daniel, 214. 
Morny, Charles de, 10. 
Moxus, 106. 
Murray, Gen., 323, 342 ; at Quebec, 

364- 

Naval Engagements, 117, 125, 

168, 211, 235. 
Naxonat, Fort, no, 120. 
Necessity, Fort, 205. 
Neff, Mary, 121. 
Nelson, Fort, 125. 
Nelson, John, 105, 108. 
Newcastle, Duke of, 270. 
Newfoundland, posts taken by 

French, 124, 134 ; restored, 143. 



New Lorette, 55. 

Niagara, Fort, 80, 149 ; Shirley's 

expedition, 225 ; Prideaux at, 302, 

304; besieged, 304. 
Nicholson Col., takes Port Royal, 

136 ; in command, 139. 
Nipissings, the, 42, 261. 
Noble, Arthur, killed, 168. 
Norridgewock, attacked, 144, 148. 
Noue, Father, death of, 61, 
Nova Scotia. See Acadia. 
Noyan at Frontenac, 293. 

Ogdensburg, 190. 
Ohio Company, the, 197. 
Ohio Valley, the, 143, 171, 189, 193. 
Olier, J. J., 58. 
Oneidas, the. See Iroquois. 
Onondagas, the. See Iroquois. 
Ontario, Fort, 242. 
Oswegatchie, 190, 206. 
Oswego, 149, 190, 292, 226 ; be- 
sieged, 241. 
Ottagomies, the. See Foxes. 
Ottawas, the, 42, 140, 260. 
Oyster River. See Durham. 

Paris, Treaty of, 371. 

Pemaquid, Fort, attacked by Ind- 
ians, 83 ; rebuilt, 107 ; negotia- 
tions at, 116; destroyed, 118. 

Penobscot, 66, 79, 120, 134, 147. 

Penn, William, 195. 

Peoria, fort at, 63. 

Pepperell, Sir \V.-, at Louisbourg, 
157 ; made baronet, 164. 

Phips, Sir W., early hfe of, 87; 
takes Port Royal, 91 ; at Quebec, 
94 ; rebuilds Pemaquid, 107. 

Picqua, 198. 

Picquet, Father, 190, 245, 308. 

Pitt, Fort, 300. 

Pitt, William, 271, 289. 

Pittsburgh, 300. 

Plains of Abraham, 344, 351 ; first 
battle of, 352 ; second, 365. 

Point Levi, 326, 328, 329, 331. 

Pontgrave, 20. 

Pontiac, 218. 

Portneuf, 86. 

Port Royal, 22 ; destroyed, 32 ; at- 
tacked, 71 ; surrendered to Eng- 
land, 78 ; expedition against, 87 ; 
taken by Phips, 91 ; by Nicholson, 



38o 



INDEX. 



J36; attacked by Indians, 147, 

154, 156. 
Pouchot, 241, 303, 308, 368. 
Poutrincourt, 22, 24, 25, 26, ^t^. 
Pragmalic Sanction, the, 151. 
Pretender, the, 131. 
Prevost, Major, 96. 
Prideaux, Gen., 302, 304, 305, 
Prince Edward's Island, 277. 
Protestants, excluded from French 

colonies, 64 ; plan concerning, 81. 
Putnam, Israel, 224, 264, 279, 291. 

Quebec, town on the site of, 12 ; 
founded, 25 ; taken by Kirk, 50 ; 
expeditions against, 139, 164, 302 ; 
besieged by Wolfe, 319 ; surren- 
dered, 359 ; beseiged by De Levis, 

365. 
Queen Anne's War, 130. 

Ramezay, 165, 167. 

Rasles, Father, 144, 148. 

Recollect, Sault au, 59. 

Recollects, the, 44, 59. 

Richelieu, Cardinal, 47, 49, 69. 

Richelieu, Fort, 57. 

Rigaud de Vaudreuil, 253, 268, 290. 

Roberval, 16. 

Roche, Marquis de la, t8. 

Rochelle, siege of, 49. 

Rocky Brook, skirmish at, 233. 

Rogers, Robert, 279, 291, 313, 315. 

Rome, fort at, 291. 

Roquemont, 49. 

Rumford, N. H., attacked, 169, 

Ryswick, peace of, 123, 128. 

Sabbath-Day Point, 260, 280. 
Sable Island, convicts of, 19. 
Saco, attacks on, 82, 132. 
St. Castin, Baron, 79, 118, 132, 134, 

137, 138. 
St. Charles River, 319. 
St. Foy, 364. 
St. Francis Indians, 315. 
St. Germain-en-Laye, treaty of, 52. 
St. Helene, 82, 83, 100. 
St. Joseph, fort at, 63. 
St. Lawrence, the name of, 11. 
Ste. Marie, mission of, 59. 
St. Pierre, Chevalier, 202, 204, 231, 
St. Ours, 321, 355. 
St. Sacrament, Lake. See George. 
Salmon Falls, massacre at, 86. 



Saunders, Admiral, 302, 323, 360. 

Saussaye, 29. 

Scarayoodi, 221. 

Schenectady, massacre at, 84. 

Scholars' Battle, the, 332. 

Schuyler, John, 95. 

Schuyler, Peter, 113, 115, 139. 

Schuyler, Philip, 242. 

Senecas, the. See Iroquois. 

Senezergues, 321, 355. 

Seven Years' War, the, 236. 

Shawnees, the, 195, 207, 221. 

Shenandoah Valley, the, 246, 

Shingis, 249. 

Shirley, Gov., 156, 164, 210 ; ordered 

to Niagara, 224; at Oswego, 226; 

military capacity of 236 ; removed, 

237- 
Silesia, 151. 

Sillery, 334 ; battle of, 365. 
Six Nations, the. See Iroquois. 
Sorel, 57. 
Spain, claims of, 26 ; Louisiana 

ceded to, 371. 
Spanish succession. War of the, 131. 
Stadacone, 12, 16. 
Stanwix, Fort, 291, 
Stanwix, Gen., 255. 
Stark, John, 224, 259, 279, 283. 
Subercase, 134, 136, 

Taxus, 1 10, 112. 

Temple, Sir Thomas, 78, 105. 

Texas, colony in, 64. 

Thury, 83, 106, no, 112, 118. 

Ticonderoga, 227, 234, 241, 279 ; 

besieged, 284, 302, 310 ; abandoned 

by the French, 312. 
Tobacco Nation, the, 55. 
Toronto, abandoned, 310. 
Townshend, Gen., 323 ; his plan for 

taking Quebec, 343 ; ability of, 

354 ; in command, 357, 359. 
Tracy, Marquis de, 57. 
Trepezee, 280, 281, 
Trout Brook, 281. 
Turtle Creek, 216. 
Tyng, Edward, 105, 162. 

Utrecht, treaty cf, 143. 

Valrenne, 113. 

Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 112, 137, 

225, 293, 303, 351, 359, 370. 
Vaughan, Col. Wm, , 159, 161, 164, 



INDEX. 



381 



Vauquelin, 321, 367. ' 

Venango, Fort, 200, 308. 

Vergor, at Beau Sejour, 181 ; at 

\\ olfe's cove, 348, 350. 
Verrazzauo, 6. 
Viel, Father, 59. 
Vignan, Nicholas cle, 41. 
Villebon, 93, 105, 106, uo, 117, 120. 
Villeniarie, 59. 
Villiers, 167, 205. 
Viliieu, 110, n8, 129. 
Voltaire, 164. 

Wainwright, Col., 135. 

Waldo, Gen., 158. 

Waldron, Maj., 82. 

Walker, Sir H., 139; retreats, 141. 

Walking Purchase, the, 196. 

Walley, Maj., 94, 99, 100. 

Walpole, Horace, quoted, 257. 

Warraghiyagey, 191. 

Warren, Com., 157, 159, 163, 168. 

Washington, Augustine, 197. 

Washington, George, at Le Bceuf, 
201 ; with Fry, 203 ; fight with 
Jumonville, 204 ; at Great Mead- 
ows, 205; with Braddock, 214; 
commands Virginia forces, 221 ; 
at Winchester, 247 ; meets Lou- 
doun, 254 ; with Forbes, 294, 299. 



Washington, Lawrence, 197. 

Water ford, 200. 

Webb, Gen., retreat of, 245 ; fails to 

relieve Monroe, 262. 
Weems, Capt., 83. 
Wells, attacks on, 106, 107, 132. 
Vv'estbrook, Col., 145, 147. 
Whitefield, George, 157. 
William UL, 130. 
William Henry, Fort, 234, 260 ; siege 

of, 262, 311. 
Williams, Lphrairn, 224, 229, 230. 
Williams, Roger, 72. 
Williamstov.-n, attacked, 169. 
Wills' Creek, 204. 
Winchester, 246. 
Winslow, John, 180, 184. 
Winslow, Josiah, 147. 
Winthrop, Gen., 94. 
Winthrop, Gov., 68, 69, 75. 
Wolfe, Gen. James, at Louisbourg, 
273 ; in Acadia, 278 ; ordered to 
QuelDec. 302 ; besieges it, 321 ; at 
Montmorenci, 334 ; his illness, 
343 ; wounded, 355. 35^ i his 
death, 357 ; his burial, 361. 
Wolfe's Cove, 321, 347, 348- 
Wooster River, skirmish at, 86. 
Wyandots, the, 55. 
York, attacks on, 106, 112. 



IR6D"'1 



